Lessons learned from a small native American community

The decision not to build Orme Dam was a great political victory for residents of the Fort McDowell Indian Reservation in central Arizona. This article examines the conditions that gave rise to what most considered an unlikely outcome, and the lessons it suggests for understanding the politics of large water projects. These lessons include the importance of understanding that rationality takes multiple forms; that how value is expressed can be as significant as what, and how much, something is valued; that identity politics which elaborates and celebrates cultural differences can be an effective means for challenging even powerful bureaucracies; and that law can be an important mediating structure in the politics of bureaucratic decision‐making. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Multilateral development banks,transparency and corporate clients: ‘public–private partnerships’ and public access to information

The multilateral development banks (MDB) recognise and promote transparency as a principle of good governance. Public release of information about policies and projects is a central aspect of this transparency, and the five MDBs studied here each adopted new policies during the 1990s to increase the accessibility of such information. The flow of information to local communities is important to the effectiveness of MDBs' social and environmental safeguards and to securing public support. But MDBs also embrace a second strategy, which sometimes conflicts with transparency: each MDB (or an affiliate) lends to private corporations as well as to member states and each bank modifies its information disclosure rules, giving corporate clients greater discretion than member governments. Environmental and social safeguards apply to corporate borrowers as well as to governments and there is a relatively high level of controversy over corporate projects' environmental and social impact. When subjected to a qualitative review of their disclosure standards, emphasising fullness of disclosure, accessibility of information, timeliness of information and availability of recourse, the disclosure policies of all five MDBs are clearly found to accommodate corporate confidentiality while compromising public demands for information. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Navigating the Future: A Case Study of Growing Victoria Together

In an increasingly volatile, uncertain and complex world governments internationally are seeking new frameworks to think about future directions which can guide policy choices that can be turned into realities. This article presents an insiders' case study of the initial development of the Victorian Labor government's Growing Victoria Together, launched in November 2001; it expresses the vision, policy priorities and its key progress measures. It has been developed to guide medium-term policy choices, communicate directions to citizens and engage stakeholders to think collaboratively about the future. The article notes the emerging international interest in alternatives to public policy paradigms based on economic rationality, market decision-making and organisational managerialism and outlines the steps and actions involved in developing its public release and the first stages of implementation. It concludes by reflecting on lessons which can be learned from this experience for exploring new strategic policy frameworks.