Louisiana’s Comprehensive Master Plan for a Sustainable Coast is the state of Louisiana’s ambitious response to its continuing land loss crisis. Coastal restoration enjoys universal approval as a political issue in the state; however, controversy exists over a specific project type that seeks to divert sediment from the Mississippi River into surrounding marsh. While the State argues that sediment diversions are critical for land building, widespread concerns persist that changes to the estuary will generate economic hardship for coastal communities. This study investigates the structural challenges that diversion opponents have faced in their effort to mount effective resistance to the State’s sediment diversion projects. The study uses Lukes’ radical perspective of power to explore the ways in which the institutional configuration in Louisiana’s coastal zone produces an insular bureaucratic coalition that limits political opportunity for excluded groups to affect the coastal planning process. This article argues that this coalition, and the State and the energy industry in particular, has been able to leverage non-decision power and ideology to inhibit mobilization against the diversion component of the coastal master plan.

中文翻译：

---

非决定性权力和政治机会：在路易斯安那州的海岸恢复冲突中动员结构性障碍

路易斯安那州的《可持续海岸综合总体规划》是路易斯安那州对其持续的土地流失危机的雄心勃勃的回应。沿海恢复作为该州的政治问题得到了普遍认可。然而，对于试图将沉积物从密西西比河转移到周围的沼泽的特定项目类型存在争议。尽管该州认为，泥沙转移对土地建设至关重要，但人们仍然普遍担心，河口的变化将给沿海社区带来经济困难。这项研究调查了转移反对者在努力抵制该州泥沙转移项目的有效阻力时所面临的结构性挑战。该研究使用卢克斯的激进权力观来探索路易斯安那州沿海地区的制度配置如何形成孤立的官僚联盟，从而限制被排斥群体影响沿海计划进程的政治机会。本文认为，这个联盟，特别是国家，尤其是能源行业，已经能够利用非决定性的权力和意识形态来抑制动员起来反对沿海总体规划的转移部分。