4. THE FOUR PHASES OF LIAM 



The Legal Institutional Analysis Model (LIAM) provides a step-by-step 

 process for understanding a particular instream flow issue and building 

 effective strategies for participation in its resolution. This process is 

 divided into four steps or phases, all of which operate on the assumption that 

 individuals can accurately describe the factors that will influence the outcome 

 of an instream flow conflict, and then determine the ways in which organiza- 

 tiona influence can best be brought to bear on the process. These phases 

 include: (1) traditional surveys of the organizations and laws involved; 

 (2) a description of organizational roles; (3) an analysis of the power 

 relationships; and (4) an assessment and prediction of likely organizational 

 behavior (Figure 2) . 



Phase I analysis is similar to the traditional assessment recommended and 

 discussed in the literature, which has long been an important ingredient of 

 policy analysis. In Phase I, an analyst attempts to answer the question: Who 

 will participate in this conf 1 ict--and upon what statutory basis, if any? 



4.1 PHASE I: SURVEY OF AUTHORITIES 



Understanding the general context in which a decision will be made is 

 necessary to properly scope a problem prior to participation in its resolution 

 (Ingram et al . 1984). Many factors operate to define a resource issue. The 

 steps in Phase I help the analyst to identify two of these factors and to 

 organize them for further analysis. In the case of instream flows, as with 

 other resource issues, understanding begins with the identification of the 

 specific organizations and laws involved. The laws determine the number and 

 types of organizations to be involved as well as set the general boundaries 

 within which interaction among those organizations will occur. Thus, Phase I 

 analyses are conducted in two separate steps: the organizational survey and 

 the legal survey. In this manner, the analyst can identify the relevant 

 organizational participants that need to be included in the overall analysis, 

 and then determine the legal authority that each will bring into the decision 

 process. 



Organizational Survey 



Relevant organizational participants need to be identified for three 

 important reasons. First, the number and type of organizational actors must 

 be considered preparatory to determining the role types involved. Second, the 

 "mix" of organizations involved determines, in large part, the type of arena 

 in which interaction will occur, which in turn shapes the nature of that 

 interaction and gives the analyst some basis for preliminary predictions about 



29 



