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Whose input counts? : Evaluating the process and outcomes of public consultation through the BC Water Act Modernization Jollymore, Ashlee; McFarlane, Kiely; Harris, Leila

Abstract

Public consultation has become an increasingly common form of democratic engagement. While critics have challenged the potential for public consultation to democratize policy-making due to existing power structures, few studies have undertaken a systematic evaluation of the policy outcomes of consultation. This study combines qualitative and quantitative techniques to systematically analyze participants’ responses to policy proposals, and compare those responses with resulting policies. We utilized this approach to examine the large-scale public consultation process that informed the development of British Columbia’s new Water Sustainability Act (2014). Our analysis revealed: 1) barriers to effectual engagement, particularly for First Nations; 2) statistical differences in policy preferences between industry and non-industry groups; and 3) patterns in how these preferences align with policy outcomes, suggesting uneven participant influence on policy-making. This study highlights the importance of analyzing consultation outcomes alongside process design, and the need to assess consultation’s fairness and effectiveness by examining its outcomes for different participant groups.

Item Metadata

Title
Whose input counts? : Evaluating the process and outcomes of public consultation through the BC Water Act Modernization
Creator
Jollymore, Ashlee; McFarlane, Kiely; Harris, Leila
Contributor
EDGES (University of British Columbia); University of British Columbia. Program on Water Governance
Date Issued
2017-02
Description
Public consultation has become an increasingly common form of democratic engagement. While critics have challenged the potential for public consultation to democratize policy-making due to existing power structures, few studies have undertaken a systematic evaluation of the policy outcomes of consultation. This study combines qualitative and quantitative techniques to systematically analyze participants’ responses to policy proposals, and compare those responses with resulting policies. We utilized this approach to examine the large-scale public consultation process that informed the development of British Columbia’s new Water Sustainability Act (2014). Our analysis revealed: 1) barriers to effectual engagement, particularly for First Nations; 2) statistical differences in policy preferences between industry and non-industry groups; and 3) patterns in how these preferences align with policy outcomes, suggesting uneven participant influence on policy-making. This study highlights the importance of analyzing consultation outcomes alongside process design, and the need to assess consultation’s fairness and effectiveness by examining its outcomes for different participant groups.
Subject
Consultation; Participation; Evaluation; Policy making; Democracy; Water governance; Water Sustainability Act
Geographic Location
British Columbia
Genre
Article; Postprint
Type
Text
Language
eng
Date Available
2018-11-10
Provider
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
DOI
10.14288/1.0343255
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/2429/60935
Affiliation
Science, Faculty of; Non UBC; Resources, Environment and Sustainability (IRES), Institute for
Citation
Jollymore, A., McFarlane, K., and Harris, L.M. (2017) Whose input counts? Evaluating the process and outcomes of public consultation through the BC Water Act Modernization. Critical Policy Studies.
Publisher DOI
10.1080/19460171.2017.1282377
Peer Review Status
Reviewed
Scholarly Level
Faculty; Graduate
Rights URI
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Aggregated Source Repository
DSpace

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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International