THE INCORPORATION OF PUBLIC VALUES INTO PUBLIC POLICY

This study had four purposes: (1) to determine if the values held by major interest groups in the context of a highly controversial, multi-objective federal project, the Central Arizona Water Control Study (CAWCS) could be integrated into the decision-making process; (2) to determine if decision-makers use the resulting information in their policy-making process; (3) to determine if the multi-attribute utility technique (MAUT) can be used to integrate public values into the public policy-making process and be applied in the educational arena; and (4) to determine if the MAUT can facilitate the reduction of conflict and development of consensus among diverse interests.;Three of the eight alternatives were found to best meet the concerns of all stakeholder groups. The attributes which accounted for the most agreement and the most disagreement among groups also were identified. In order to test the sensitivity of the results to changes in the weighting policies of the groups, each group's policy was changed to represent a more extreme statement of their values. One of the three alternatives remained at or near the top in overall desirability regardless of all reasonable modifications of either value and factual judgments.;The decision-makers, represented by the two federal agencies responsible for the study, used the results of the Public Values Assessment in their final recommendation. The decision-makers, represented by the Governor's Community Advisory Committee, did not use the results.;The multi-attribute utility technique, as implemented in this study, was found to be a satisfactory way to build consensus among a widely diverse group of interests.;Over 100 interest groups with a stake in the outcome of the CAWCS were invited to participate in a Public Values Assessment. The participants rated 14 attributes in terms of the relative importance of each attribute. These attributes were determined by the study team to be critical in the evaluation of the eight CAWCS alternatives. These ratings or value judgments were combined with technical expert judgments using the multi-attribute utility technique to determine the extent to which each alternative satisfied the values expressed by the participants. The technical expert judgments reflected the aggregated utility of each alternative on each attribute.;The implications of this study suggested that current issues in the public education area, such as declining enrollment, school closings, desegregation, and sex education programs, should lend themselves to this technique. It was recommended that a Public Values Assessment be conducted to help decision-makers resolve conflict in a public education issue.