Portée et limites de la participation délibérative : le cas de la Commission d'étude sur la gestion de la forêt publique québécoise
This master’s thesis addresses the scope and limits of public participation in the management of natural resources. More precisely, a case study of the Commission Coulombe is made to determine, on one hand, how deliberative participation has encouraged the emergence of new discourses and what the political effects of this recognition were. The theoretical approach underlying the argument made in this dissertation is both discursive and institutional. It is based on Bas Arts and Pieter Leroy’s “political arrangement” notion.  The analysis of the Coulombe Commission reveals that deliberative participation reinforced the legitimacy of state institutions, encouraged the emergence of new concerns and concepts, had effects on the elaboration of rules, policies and programs and fostered – to an extent – a redefinition of the power relations among the actors of Québec’s forest regime. However, its effects on the democratization of public management remain limited. Government officials made use of the Coulombe Commission to reestablish their credibility, to justify unpopular decisions and push forward the principal orientations of their government. Furthermore, the social actors who gained the most power and the issues who became prominent are those who were advantaged by Québec’s political agenda of state modernization.
controverse discours institutions governance public participation forest management deliberation controversy discourses institutions