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Evidence for Impact (Print This) | |
The available evidence suggests that formal public participation in technological decision making can influence policy making, although the effect may be difficult to measure. Public participation does appear to help citizens become more versed in technological matters, at least according to their self-reporting.
Up to now, very few studies have been done to determine whether the views, concerns, and actions of the nonexpert public actually influence choices about technology. Nor has the effect of such participation on public understanding of science and technology - or on technological literacy - been carefully evaluated. Recently, a small group of mostly European researchers has begun to examine the impact of public participation on decision making. One of the first studies looked at the extent to which consensus conferences influenced the legislative decisions of the Danish Parliament.
The study found that 75 percent of members of Parliament had heard of consensus conferences, and 50 percent of these had attended at least one. Of those who were familiar with consensus conferences, 13 percent felt that the conferences sometimes led to parliamentary discussions, debates, or initiatives, such as issuance of laws or guidelines. At least one conference, on human genome mapping in 1989, served as the basis for new legislation.
An evaluation of the only U.S. participatory consensus conference to date, "Telecommunications and the Future of Democracy," concluded that the conference had no actual impact on the substance of telecommunications policy or on the general hinking about the issue among policy makers. But the assessment did find that the nonexpert participants in the process learned a good deal about telecommunications technology and about consensus conferences and the role of citizens in public decision making.
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