| Many analyses of environmental policy and administration have focussed upon the difficulties involved in employing scientific research, especially in the area of large development projects. Yet the literature to date has been largely disjointed, divided into questions of philosophy of science or the workings of public administration. This has meant that either definitions of science and rationality have been haphazard, or that close examination of administrative processes has been avoided. This research attempts to bring together various literatures related to the question of how science works in environmental policy, arguing that scientific research is often fundamentally inimical to common political processes present within public administration. A common assumption exists that political consensus can be formed solely by reference to objective facts, that political rationality can be brought under the control of science. Yet politics and science do not operate in the same fashion, and attempts to bring them together or force certainty upon political questions often result in the failure of scientific research.; This thesis first develops a working definition of science, and contrasts it with the various forms of rationality with which science has so often been confused. This examines past approaches to analyzing science and politics, showing how a more centrist approach is preferable to the more common logical positivist or constructivist schools of thought. This theoretical section then proceeds to examine how the critical and conditional nature of knowledge, necessary for science and research, is lost within day-to-day operations of administrative agencies. The case studies in this research focus upon dam construction and water resources management in three industrialized countries. Using historical and comparative research, these cases illustrate how and why organizations use falsified or fraudulent research to support their goals, and why such an approach cannot alleviate political conflict. Rather than insisting that only one political solution exists, effective environmental management requires a process in which facts are considered conditional and outcomes can be evaluated differently by competing groups. Only by sustaining open forms of government can policy be properly legitimated and scientific research be maintained. |
