The empirical investigation of citizens' preferences with respect to four energy scenarios

Abstract

The use of planning cells as a participatory element in the political decisionmaking context turned out to be a highly complex but rewarding effort. From the experience with more than 20 planning cells, we have gained a better understanding of the chances and the limits of this model. Also, we encountered some difficulties which were not visible when we started our program. Our experiences justify the turther development of the planning cell concept. but at the same time revealed some of the serious problems and drawbacks related to the idea of picking random samples for policy evaluation. These problems have to be solved before this instrument is used in wider scope to facilitate decisionmaking under conflict.