From adversarial to collaborative interaction

Abstract

The focus of the cases analyzed in this book is the search for alternative forms of decision making within the context of a parliamentary democracy. This form of government is known to have its limitations, especially with respect to environmental problems. The need for supplementary decisionmaking mechanisms is abundantly clear. Environmental problems require a long-term perspective on and careful guidance of social change. Yet both of these requirements prove to be elusive in a parliamentary democracy, a political system in which decision making is based on established procedures to reach a simple majority of one-half plus one. Decisions are made by people who are entrusted with this task after elections. The rules they follow must guarantee the legitimacy of their decisions. Those rules also ensure that the special interests can organize themselves and will have access to the decisionmaking process. The existence of countervailing powers prevents the domination of one single interest.