Public policy decisions, private sector

During the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), the U S. National Academies, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the American Chemistry Council announced a new initiative to facilitate better communication among scientists, policymakers, and other decisionmakers so that scientific knowledge more effectively informs public policy and private sector decisions relating to sustainability in developing countries. More specifically, the goals of the initiative are ... 

Government needs to be better educated in the realities of the marketplace but even in civilian research and development, its actions cannot be guided solely by them. Nor is the reconciliation of government and industry interests simply a matter of consulting one another. If the previous hypotheses are correct, what is required is the institutionalization of private sector participation in public policy decisions and management. This proposition is radically at odds with the more extreme versions of the "hands off" philosophy of some executives in industry and the "arm s length" philosophy of some officials, in government. 

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