Managing public resources: Public deliberation as organizational learning

The National Forest Management Act of 1976 contained the structural elements for transforming administrative planning and decision processes at the National Forest level into social decision processes. In particular, NFMA required increased reliance upon formal analysis and it greatly expanded opportunities for citizen participation in agency decision processes. However, these requirements derive from competing theories of public administration: the Forest Service should be an efficient manager of national resources and it should be an effective mediator among conflicting public interests.;This dissertation examines the emergence of a deliberative model of administration which offers a synthesis of the efficiency and mediation models. The deliberative agency promotes broad public discourse about the principles as well as the consequences of choice, stimulating the growth of common local understanding between the agency and its clienteles without sacrificing the principles contained in its national mandate.;The purpose of the study was to determine why and in what conditions National Forest management evolves toward the deliberative model. It concludes that effective deliberation requires a local management culture which supports and encourages broad public discourse at the local level. This management culture appears to work best when the Forest Supervisor practices a responsive management style in which social pressures are viewed as opportunities for learning and self-correction within the policy process. Thus, the deliberative model presumes that social interests are shaped within the planning process: as citizens empathize with one another's concerns and needs, they not only come to understand their own interests, but also to form collective values from their individual valuations.;To the extent that the Forest Service adopts a deliberative model for National Forest management, the agency expands its capacity for social learning. Whether its legitimacy and public trust will be enhanced as the agency develops plans and policies which are responsive to collective values and technically competent remains to be seen.