Environmental justice and deliberative democracy: How social change organizations respond to power in the deliberative system

Abstract This article examines how civil society organizations transmit policy ideas to decision makers in deliberative politics. Drawing on a case of the Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice, it focuses on how they respond to hegemonic power and considers action within “the deliberative system,” including deliberative forums and broader public discourse. I find that civil society actors use both discursive and coercive forms of power to mobilize meaning and interrupt prevailing assumptions about race in environmental decision making. Contrary to theory, the civil society organization used coercive power mostly in and relating to face-to-face deliberation (to secure a fairer process and get their policy problems on the agenda). When their ideas about racial discrimination were weakened in deliberations, however, they used non-confrontational forms of discursive power to develop critical discourse on race and disseminate it in the public sphere where it could inform future political action.