Bureaucratizing democracy, democratizing bureaucracy

This article analyzes the relationship between how rationality is conceived and hour democracy is practiced in the Bureau of Reclamation, a water deve lopment agency in the Department of Interior. The efforts of some inside th e agency to institutionalize rational decision-making models, partly in res ponse to new environmental law, expanded the number and range of interest g roups that participated in its decisions by incorporating their preferences into their models for evaluating plans. But the terms under which people c ould express their values and interests were strictly controlled in ways th at some felt misrepresented their concerns. How we conceive of rationality has important implications for how and which people are included in bureauc ratic decision making.