An Empirical‐Theoretical Analysis Framework for Public Participation in Environmental Impact Assessment

Public participation has been increasingly recognized as one of the most important aspects of environmental impact assessment. However, the definition of adequate evaluative criteria for public participation, with a strong theoretical backing, the functionality of empirical best practice and the consideration of the country-specific context, has remained elusive. The evaluative framework developed here is an attempt to fill this gap. Best-practice public participation is defined as consisting of two components: (1) legal provisions; and (2) actors' attitudes and capacities (towards participation). The theoretical model, defined on the basis of Webler's adaptation of Habermas's theory of communicative action, is then translated into evaluative criteria for bestpractice public participation.