Citizen Participation Policy Making for Environmental Issues: A Literature Review

Abstract

Developing countries, like Iran, have challenging environmental problems – the need to improve the state of the environment, for human beings and other living creatures, is among the most serious challenges for comprehensive development in such countries. Governments and local organizations could not single-handedly tackle the destruction, and its associated problems in the environment. Consequently, the value and role of public participation in administrating nations and developing democratic societies has drawn attention to the idea of citizen participation in management. Involvement of citizens in environmental issues is considered as one of the key realms of governmental strategic planning. Lack of systematic knowledge and sufficient awareness among officials and major decision makers has become a main source of challenges and problems in this area. This has resulted in a poor assessment of current situations and the consequent inability to provide the best conditions for employing the resources of civic engagement in environmental issues. This research aims to review related studies covering the topic of citizen participation in policy making, with regards to the environment.