Decision making Reflection on Environmental Bill of Rights

Additional instructions                                   Nov. 13, 2014

The basic instructions are set out in the syllabus, as follows:

.subject is an environmental decision making process, perhaps related to work in your degree program

. first objective is to analyze why the decision was made

. second objective is evaluate the decision making process, using explicitly stated criteria

 

Additional instructions are as follows:

 

  1. Contact either of us if you want suggestions for a topic. Also, contact us if you want comment on your plans for the paper.

 

  1. To achieve the first objective, you need to make an argument respecting what factors had the greatest influence on the decision, eg quality of information; lobbying by stakeholders; ideological convictions of decision makers or other factors. That analytical argument must be supported by information, gained from your research.

 

For purposes of this assignment, research generally can be done by:

. reviewing academic, peer-reviewed publications

. reviewing non-peer-reviewed publications, eg news media

. reviewing documents generated by the actors being studied

 

  1. To achieve the second objective, you must decide which criteria you will use to evaluate. Commonly used criteria are:

. effectiveness – achieve the desired result

. efficiency – minimize cost of achieving that result

. transparency – degree to which information made public

. accountability – decision maker could not completely independently

. degree of democracy – those affected given a voice in the decision

. distributive fairness – extent to which results of decision are seen to be fair

 

  1. To facilitate achieving both objectives of analysis and evaluation, the paper should first briefly describe the decision and the decision making process, including a chronological account, as well as identifying major decision making elements, in particular those that are critical to addressing your arguments. This is important context for both sections of your paper.

 

  1. We suggest you focus only on the decision, not subsequent implementation, but you can look at implementation as well if you prefer.

 

  1. As noted in the syllabus, length should be 5,000 – 6,000 words. Please do not exceed 6,000 words, not including citations.

 

Let us know how we can help.  Becky Raboy, Doug Macdonald