Is there anything worse for a community than a "public hearing"?
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September 28, 2004
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Oh, yes, many things... most of which are far more common and consequential. For example: Elected officials and interested elites making decisions in obscurity. Public resources and powers being contracted out to private organizations which take them behind closed doors. "Public participation processes" that are carefully managed to avoid or marginalize genuine disagreement with things that "leaders" have already decided.
Real public hearings -- which are of course few and far between these days -- are one of the few tools we have for bringing a variety of informed perspectives into the public realm, on a more or less equal footing. This is why in-groups hate them and out-groups love them. Just ask the next environmentalist you meet.
Posted by: Bill | October 03, 2004 at 10:01 AM