La décision de construire le tracé hydro-électrique Chénier-Châteauguay: une analyse cybernétique

The cybernetic approach used here rests on the concept of the feedback loop. In contrast to the classical models of political science, the perspective adopted here is not oriented toward the construction of a taxonomy, but toward a more advanced formulation of interaction among the elements of a given system. The analysis develops around eight main principal problems: location; information-consultation; institutional constraints; ecology; agriculture; the economy; health; and the controlling agency. Each of these problems is treated as a sub-system of a model which constitutes a simplified replica of the problems which the participants confronted.The major empirical results of this research are as follows: (1) as expected, the various actors did not pursue the same kinds of regulations; (2) contrary to what one might have expected, the perception of the position of Hydro-Quebec articulated by the groups which contested the project did not question the desired impacts of the state agency; (3) contrary to what one might have anticipated, the contesting groups anticipated effects which were opposite to those expected by Hydro for most of the options considered in the analysis; (4) contrary to an intuitive expectation, the conflict of perceptions between Hydro and the opposition groups did not reach maximum intensity on environmental questions; (5) the positions advanced by the opposing groups did not differ radically from positions taken by Hydro—again contrary to expectations; (6) the interconnections of sub-systems may lead to undesirable consequences, contrary to those one might have anticipated intuitively; (7) the behaviour of the global system is less dependent upon the regulation of sub-systems than upon the network of connections among the sub-systems.