Identifying and prioritizing the strategies of street-level bureaucrats in the implementation of environmental policies (Case of Study: Law on Protection and Exploitation of Northern Forests)

Abstract

Despite the plethora of studies on street-level bureaucrats, only a very limited body of research has focused on their role in the environmental scene. This is surprising; Because they play an important role in the chain of policy-making and in the actual realization and implementation of policies; Therefore, the current research was conducted with the aim of identifying and prioritizing the role of street-level bureaucrats in the implementation of environmental policies (case of study: the law on protection and exploitation of forests in the north of the country). To achieve this goal, first a qualitative study was conducted using thematic analysis method. A semi-structured interview was used to collect data. Using purposeful sampling, subject saturation was achieved after conducting eleven interviews. The method of fuzzy hierarchical analysis process was used to give weight to these themes. The data of this stage was collected using a paired comparison questionnaire that was collected from a sample of eleven employees and foresters in three northern provinces. The extraction of semantic units led to the identification of 169 basic themes, 30 organizing themes and 9 overarching themes, in which nine main themes are "emotional attitude towards citizens, organizational characteristics, changing the nature of the policy, knowledge weakness of employees, individual decision characteristics" It was classified as the recipient, determining how to govern the forest, adopting coping strategies, localizing the policy and making the policy operational. The results of the fuzzy hierarchical analysis showed that among the nine main themes, changing the nature of the policy, determining how to govern the forest and adopting coping strategies were in the first to third place. The final weights of the subthemes were obtained by multiplying the weight of the main themes by the relative weight of the subthemes; Based on this, the sub-topics of adaptation of policies to local conditions, government-citizen relations, hidden politics and weak expertise and skills of employees were ranked first to fourth.The final weights of the subthemes were obtained by multiplying the weight of the main themes by the relative weight of the subthemes; Based on this, the sub-topics of adaptation of policies to local conditions, government-citizen relations, hidden politics and weak expertise and skills of employees were ranked first to fourth.The final weights of the subthemes were obtained by multiplying the weight of the main themes by the relative weight of the subthemes; Based on this, the sub-topics of adaptation of policies to local conditions, government-citizen relations, hidden politics and weak expertise and skills of employees were ranked first to fourth.The final weights of the subthemes were obtained by multiplying the weight of the main themes by the relative weight of the subthemes; Based on this, the sub-topics of adaptation of policies to local conditions, government-citizen relations, hidden politics and weak expertise and skills of employees were ranked first to fourth.The final weights of the subthemes were obtained by multiplying the weight of the main themes by the relative weight of the subthemes; Based on this, the sub-topics of adaptation of policies to local conditions, government-citizen relations, hidden politics and weak expertise and skills of employees were ranked first to fourth.

Keywords

• street-level bureaucrats
• environmental policies
• law on protection and exploitation of northern forests