Synopses & Reviews
As services provided by government have expanded over the past several decades, so inevitably, has bureaucracy--especially the corps of professional administrators in charge of programs ranging from health care to the maintenance of efficient transportation networks. Under pressure from reform groups to promote public accountability by involving citizens in the decision-making process, government has begun to place private citizens on many important health, education, transportation, and environmental planning bodies. This study of citizen participation and technocracy, written by twelve prominent specialists, provides the first comprehensive theoretical and empirical analyses of these recent developments and their impact on formulating, directing, and implementing public policies.
Review
A collection of ten essays that examine and often advocate direct and meaningful citizen participation in public decision making. The book's common thread is the tension between technocratic and democratic approaches to complex issues.... Overhanging these essays is the current perception of `economic scarcity,' with its imperative to target resources, which tends to centralize power in the hands of experts and bureaucracies. Counterstrategies are weighed-e.g., using public advisors, `opening up' administrative procedures, creating `representative' citizen boards. Essays register both optimism and pessimism about citizen participation and balance prescriptive with descriptive treatment. Comprehensive bibliographies; footnotes. Upper-division and graduate students and general readers.Choice
Table of Contents
Preface
Part I. Democracy and Technocracy: An Overview
Citizen Participation and Technocracy by Jack DeSario and Stuart Langton
The Politics of Policy Analysis: The Role of Citizen Participation in Analytic Decision Making by Mary Grisez Kweit and Robert W. Kweit
Public Service Centers: The Michigan Experience by Thomas L. Van Valey and James C. Peterson
Beyond Technocracy: Anticipatory Democracy in Government and the Marketplace by Clement Bezold
Part II. Current Decision-Making Strategies in the United States
Public Participation: Reflections of the California Energy Policy Experience by Michael D. Reagan and Victoria Lynn Fedor-Thurman
Procedures for Citizen Involvement in Environmental Policy: An Assessment by Marcus E. Ethridge
Consumers and Health Planning: Mobilization of Bias? by Jack DeSario
The Role of Citizen-Initiated Programs in the Formulation of National Housing Policies by Rachel G. Bratt
Technocratic Versus Democratic Options for Educational Policy by Edward P. Morgan
Part III. The Future of Public Decision Making in the United States
Toward a Metapolicy for Social Planning by Jack DeSario and Stuart Langton
Bibliography
Index