Expanding the opportunitie s for public participation in environmental
planning is not always the best option. Starting from an institutiona l public
choice analysis of public participatio n in terms of the collective action problem,
this paper emphasises the roots of participator y activities in the incentive
structures facing potential participants . It then goes on to consider the strategies
that may be adopted for encouraging greater public involvement and looks
particularly to the social capital literature for suggestions of how institutiona l
redesign may alter these incentive structures. The paper concludes by distinguishing
three different modes of environmental planning, in terms of the
rationale for participation , the severity of the collective action problem and the
associated participator y strategy that can be adopted