Participatory decision making on agri-environmental programmes: A case study from Sachsen-Anhalt (Germany)

The paper analyses a participatory approach to agri-environmental policy development and decision making at the state level in Germany. The approach comprises an interactive PC-based model and the facilitation of the corresponding communication process. Research objectives are improved communication processes and an enhanced quality of political decision making. The investigation is based on the assumption that the success of agri-environmental programmes depends largely on their acceptance by all major stakeholders. This implies an early integration of varying interests in the decision-making process. Introducing participatory approaches into a bureaucratic setting poses particular problems. The subsequent trade-offs resulting from different notions of a ministry and a research team collaborating on an action research process concern the choice of involved stakeholders, the continuity and intensity of facilitated processes, the amount of transparency, treatment of competences and power, as well as linkages to actual policy making.