Bureaucratizing Participation: Stakeholders' Perceptions of the Administrative Rules Governing Public Participation in the Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization

This dissertation explores multiple stakeholders' perceptions with regard to administrative rules governing public participation in the Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization (HRTPO) in Virginia. In 2007, the HRTPO received conditional certification during its quadrennial review with seven corrective actions related to public participation. Subsequently, it started to reform its public participation practices, and in 2012 it received full certification. This study explores how the HRTPO stakeholders perceive the administrative rules that govern public participation processes, more positively (as 'green tape') or more negatively (as 'red tape'), and how those perceptions have changed since 2007, relying on in-depth interviews as well as archival documents. Before 2007, top management officials had pessimistic perceptions of public participation in general and the rules in particular. The negative perceptions changed when new senior staff arrived in 2008 and initiated reforms, most notably by hiring a public involvement administrator. Acting as a transformative leader, this administrator began to adopt outreach programs, which stakeholders considered successful. By unpacking the notion of stakeholder red tape, guided by the attributes of stakeholder red tape and green tape, this study found that stakeholders perceived the rules more positively than they did in 2007.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph. D.

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Public Administration and Public Affairs

Department dc:contributor.department

School of Public and International Affairs

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2015

Author dc:creator

• Kadir, Nadhrah A.

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Rees, Joseph V.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Cook, Brian J.
• Khademian, Anne M.
• Hult, Karen M.

• Administrative rules
• green tape
• stakeholder red tape
• public participation
• transportation planning organization

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Dc Identifier Other

vt_gsexam:6296

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/76671