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METHODS We obtained records of 26 hydroelectric power licensing negotiations from field offices of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). We asked the field office supervisors to select cases they believed to have been successfully resolved. Representatives from these offices were participants in each negotiation and were required to maintain a record of the consultations. Our objective was to follow a most similar system research design (Przeworski and Teune 1970) by selecting the six most similar negotiations for which documentation was available. The cases we chose included one new license and five relicense consultations. The new license case was chosen because of its strong similarity to other cases in terms of applicable licensing regulations (Lamb 1992) and similar parties and issues. The five relicense cases are approximately 25% of all FERC relicenses granted to utilities during the period 1984-1989 (Richard Hunt Associates 1991). All the cases involved at least the utility applicant, FWS, and state fish and game agency; were conducted under the same regulatory regime (Kerwin 1990, Bearzi and Wilkerson 1990, Bearzi 1991); and at least dealt with the environmental issues of streamflow, fish passage, and fish entrainment. These environmental concerns were the most common and time consuming issues faced by parties to FERC licensing consultations during the period 1984-1989 (Richard Hunt Associates 1991). We tape-recorded structured interviews -with 48 key individuals who participated in the negotiations. Data were always collected from representatives of the major parties in each dispute, including the FWS, state fish and game agency, and applicant. Respondents were those assigned by their organizations to actually conduct the negotiations. The interviews took place at the respondent's place of business (two were conducted via telephone) and ranged in duration from 1.5 to 3 hours. All but one of the 7-member study team conducted interviews. Our interview questions were referenced directly to criteria for finding technical clarity and success. We used two stages of analysis to categorize responses according to these criteria: (1) evaluation of transcribed. responses by the 2-person interview team; and (2) review of transcripts and interview team evaluations by the entire study team. For each criterion we selected example statements that typified respondent answers. During the interviews, we asked respondents a series of questions to determine how clearly technical issues were defined during the negotiation process (Table 1). The answers varied from specific examples of how clearly respondents understood the definition and scope of the issues and the required research, to how clearly they understood the resulting data. We also asked respondents to rate technical clarity on a scale from 1 to 10, with 1 meaning the issues were not at all clear and 10 meaning the issues were perfectly clear. During the interviews we traced the history of each case so that changes in technical clarity over the course of the negotiation could be measured. Criteria for determining the clarity of technical issues included: (1) All parties agreed to the definition of the technical issues throughout the process but especially during the stage when final agreement was being forged; and (2) the definition of the technical issues was rated from high to very high (between 7 and 10) by all respondents. Interviewees were also asked to evaluate the success of each negotiation (Table 2; Fulton 1992; Burkardt et. al 1995). Our criteria to evaluate success included: the parties recognized that an agreement was reached, the agreement included a plan of implementation and post- construction monitoring, there was a willingness to enter into future negotiations with the same parties, and respondents rated success at more than seven on a ten-point scale (where 1 meant no success and 10 meant fully successful). The cases we studied varied from fully successful to minimally successful and in how well the technical clarity criteria were met.