| dc.description.abstract | In 2008 the Dutch government introduced legislation to compensate the negative ecological effects of aviation in the form of a tax on airline tickets. The tax was already abolished in 2009 after strong resistance from airlines, airport authorities and the business community. As general support for the so called ‘fly-tax’ was lacking, as shown by the strong resistance, interactive policy making may prove to be a solution for this policy problem. This form of policy making is based on the idea that directly involving major stakeholders from the early stages of the policy making process will establish stronger general support. In this thesis I have tried to re-design the policy making process behind the regulation of the negative ecological impact of aviation using an interactive policy making model by Driessen, Glasbergen en Verdaas (2001) as a framework.
The thesis starts with a literature review which gives insight into the academic discourse on interactive policy making. Thereafter a stakeholder analysis provides information on the different stakeholders, their interests and their power sources within the landscape concerning policy making and aviation. With the data from the stakeholder analysis the six steps of the model by Driessen et al. (2001) will be followed to construct a design of an interactive policy making process concerning the regulation of the aviation sector.
In the interactive policy making process the government will be the main actor due to its legislative powers, but it relies on airlines, airports and air traffic control for technical expertise. Therefore these actors will need to be involved from the start when designing a new policy. Within the policy making process there are several internal and external risks which need to be accounted for in the new policy design. Policy makers will have to be committed to the interactive policy making process in order to fully accomplish the benefits (general support) of an interactive policy making process. Perspectives, opinions and solutions of all stakeholders have to be taken seriously, and by open communication the government has to maintain good relations with all stakeholders.
When executed successfully the interactive policy making process given in this thesis may provide the general support that previous legislation has been lacking. In this way it might set an example for other failing policies which suffer from an absence of general support. | |
