The Administrative Trap

1
The Administrative Trap

• How the structure of government prevents it
  dealing with broad environmental problems.

2
Background

• We saw, last time, how the nature of the research
  process can redefine the nature of problems.
• Even if research is put on a systems basis, much
  of its implementation has to go through the
  public sector which may well put the problem back

3
A Comparison
If you are inside the maze, it is difficult to
see how you may get out. If you are above, and
can see the whole maze, it is easy to see how you
get out.

• Nature works by moving energy through an
  ecosystem. Thus, everything that influences that
  flow of energy is critical to our understanding,
  and management, of that ecosystem.
• We learned that Systems-Research is an
  intellectual tool for achieving this integration.

4
From Knowledge to Action

• Having researched what your problem really is,
  the question then arises How do I implement
  these results?
• Often that means going through another process,
  the delivery process, and that may undo all your
  efforts so far.

5
Undoing the System

• In the discussion on Research, we mentioned the
  rise of disciplines.
• These disaggregated the problem and so no-one
  was looking at the big picture.
• The same thing happens in Government.

6
How does this work in action?

• A large-scale ecological problem (e.g.
  desertification) is the sum of its parts, which
  is more than dealing with each part individually.
• Lets look at how a typical government is
  organized.

7
Put Admin and Nature Together

• If we take a genuine problem as it exists in
  Nature, i.e. the total energy system, and then
  look at the way in which we handle it, it becomes
  clear that problem and solution are not operating
  within the same terms. Thus, the solution often
  does not work.

8
How to Deal with This
Problem It crosses many jurisdictions and
creates its own territory.

• Option 1 has been to create a government
  institution charged with dealing with the whole
  problem.
• A precedent in the USA was the creation of the
  TVA.
• Main aim was control of the floodwaters of the TR.

The central problem here is geographical and
administrative. How to control the whole watershed
9
Problem-Solving Regions

• The aim is to tackle a specific problem in its
  totality and provide a holistic solution.
• These solutions can be temporary, having a fixed
  life, have their own budgets, and use people from
  different agencies as needed.
• It is purely a problem-solving device.

10
The Ministry of Environment

• Put admin and problem on same basis.

11
The Ministry of the Environment

• The idea here is to create an institution that
  brings together all the elements needed to manage
  the environment.
• The problem is that these are, everything,
  because everything is involved in the
  environment.
• Can, and should, any one government agency have
  the authority to do that? It threatens other
  agencies.
• It can be a regulatory, standard-setting
  organization, but needs teeth

12
Problems with Ministry
13
Other Administrative Problems

• The political masters of the admin system have a
  short time horizon. Environmental solutions do
  not.
• The public often does not see the problem
  (consider climate change in this country)