Public interest or private agenda? A meditation on the role of NGOs in environmental policy and management in Australia

dc.contributor.authorLane, Marcus B.en
dc.contributor.authorMorrison, T. H.en
dc.contributor.schoolSchool of Social Sciences : Geographical and Environmental Studiesen
dc.date.issued2006en
dc.description.abstractNon-government organisations (NGOs) have come to assume an important role in environmental policy in Australia. This paper considers the institutional impacts of an enlarged and formal role for NGOs in environmental governance. To foreground the analysis that follows, the paper theorises: (i) the structural democratisation of western societies which provides the preconditions for civic approaches to environmental governance; (ii) civil society organisations as political actors; and (iii) the link between non-state associations and democracy. Against this background, the paper surveys some of the ways in which NGOs are being formally involved in environmental policy and management in Australia. The paper proceeds to identify a series of risks associated with these approaches. The paper concludes by calling for a more nuanced and critical appraisal of the role of NGOs in environmental policy so political space might be reserved for the public interest and to ensure that the democratic effects of civil society are not diminished.en
dc.description.statementofresponsibilityMarcus B. Lane and T.H. Morrisonen
dc.description.urihttp://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/348/description#descriptionen
dc.identifier.citationJournal of Rural Studies, 2006; 22 (2):232-242en
dc.identifier.doi10.1016/j.jrurstud.2005.11.009en
dc.identifier.issn0743-0167en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/2440/23508
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherElsevieren
dc.subjectNGOs; Non-state associations; Environmental policy; Governance; Civil society; Structural democratisation; Democracyen
dc.titlePublic interest or private agenda? A meditation on the role of NGOs in environmental policy and management in Australiaen
dc.typeJournal articleen

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