Democracy and the Environment on the Internet: Electronic Citizen Participation in Regulatory Rulemaking

The use of the Internet in the United States to solicit and accept public comments in the regulatory rulemaking process has spurred debate about the Internet’s contribution to the democratization of environmental decision-making. The authors use two instances of “eRulemaking”—the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Organic Program’s 1997 organic labeling rule and the United States Forest Service’s 2000 proposed Roadless Area Conservation Rule—to test whether use of the Internet as a public participation mechanism lessened the conflict and controversy in environmental regulatory policymaking.