To be seen but not to be heard: scientific rationality versus democratic rationality in the decision-making process on dangerous waste management in Portugal

Manuel Branco and Dália Cristóvão
Additional contact information
Dália Cristóvão: University of Évora

Economics Working Papers from University of Évora, Department of Economics (Portugal)

Abstract: The decision-making process concerning the co-incineration of industrial dangerous waste in Portugal has most certainly been transformed into a conflict centered on the unequal distribution of risks to the environment and to public health, opposing local population to the government. It is also a good example of the conflict between scientific and democratic rationalities as the government?s decision is supposed to receive its legitimacy by science whereas those most affected by government decisions, local people, are impelled by democratic rationality. Based on a case study, the paper concludes that, despite a long period of public involvement there was no real public participation in the decision making process.

Keywords: Participation; Environmental Equity; Sustainable Development; Risk Management; Democracy; Dangerous Waste (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q53 Q56 Z1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 11 pages
Date: 2006
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-env
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10174/8448 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:evo:wpecon:11_2006

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Economics Working Papers from University of Évora, Department of Economics (Portugal) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Maria Aurora Murcho Galego ().