L' « argument économique » dans l'aide à la décision en politique environnementale et son évanescence

Abstract

Abstract – In this article, we study various so-called " decision aiding " practices used to design and implement environmental public policies, based on " economic arguments ". We analyse these practices to determine if they truly provide an aid to decision-making. We tackle this issue thanks to a case-based inquiry, implemented in two, very different case-studies: the " red muds " of Gardanne, and the territorial public policies devoted to conserve and restore wetlands in France. These cases exemplify practices sharing a similar pathology: they claim to take advantage of economic science, but in fact they are based on fallacious rationales which fail to satisfy even minimal rigorousness and scientificity requirements. We do not claim to produce quantitative evidence that our observation is generalizable. We rather claim that our empirical elements can be used to articulate ideas whose generality should be investigated in future quantitative studies: (i) decision aiding, when applied to environmental public policies, is barely, if at all, based on economic science; (ii) it nevertheless is overwhelmed by economic vocabulary, which suggests that (iii) the legitimacy of environmental public policies is badly undermined by decision aiding practices which, for lack of a robust anchorage in economic science, systematically weaken any possible justification of these policies. Mots clefs: aide à la décision, politiques environnementales, science économique, arguments, légi-timité ; – Nous analysons des arguments économiques utilisés en aide à la décision en politique publique environnementale. Pour cela, nous appliquons une méthodologie d'étude de cas aux boues rouges de Gardanne et aux politiques territoriales de zones humides. Ces cas illustrent une même pathologie : des aides à la décision prétendent s'appuyer sur la science économique, mais échouent à remplir des critères minimaux de rigueur et scientificité. Ces cas permettent ainsi de formuler des idées que des études ultérieures pourront tester : (i) l'aide à la ...