Organization, administration and the environment: Will a facelift suffice, or does the patient need radical surgery?

The Canadian environmental policy process has changed dramatically in the last decade. In past years, environmental policy typically was determined in behind-the-scene meetings of industry and government officials. But with rising concern over environmental degradation came calls for a more transparent and inclusive policy process. Much interest has been given to round table multistakeholder policy processes, and governments at all levels have been experimenting with them. This paper argues that while round tables may be an important first step in developing new policy-making mechanisms, they have some major limitations for the integration and articulation of environmental interests. While round tables are "new" with respect to their emphasis on multipartite participation, their underlying organizational logic reflects the traditional structure of the bureaucratic state. The non-traditional organizational structure of environmental organizations reflects an ideology that is diametrically opposed to the underlying philosophy of the bureaucratic state, making synthesis of the two difficult.