Centre for Sustainable Management of Resources

This paper addresses the question how public participation has influ-enced the legitimation of a policy process. What lessons can we draw from the Dutch case of a landward dike relocation in Lent? The Dutch govern-ment plan for a dike relocation in Lent (East Netherlands) aimed at solving a bottle neck in the river Waal. The conflict between the national govern-ment and citizens focuses on a value and knowledge based dispute. The state had a strong preference for taking a robust measure as receipt for the expected increasing water discharge because of climate change, while the citizens doubted the assumptions for taking such a drastic measure. They preferred a technical measure in the river foreland and a land reservation for a possible dike relocation in future. At the end, the national govern-1 The authors are both PhD-candidates How public participation influenced the legitimation of a policy process: the case of a dike relocatio