Problematic Participants in Deliberative Democracy: Experts, Social Movements, and Environmental Justice

The debate over conceptions of justice and political legitimacy, as well as democratic theory in general, has taken a deliberative turn. But deliberative democrats have had surprisingly little to say about the role to be played by technical experts and social movements in public deliberation. This is all the more surprising because deliberative theory problematizes the participation of these groups in particular ways. However, we suggest that responses to this problem are implicit in the literature on deliberation and that these responses can be made more concrete by examining the role that experts and social movements play in the struggle for environmental justice. Keywords: democracydeliberationexpertssocial movementsenvironmental justice Notes *This article is a revised version of Chapter 10 (“Problematic Participants: Experts and Social Movements”) of the book Deliberative Environmental Politics: Democracy and Ecological Rationality, by Walter F. Baber and Robert V. Bartlett (MIT Press, 2005), © 2005 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Reprinted by permission of the publisher (http://www.mitpress.mit.edu) and the authors. 7. Baber and Bartlett, 2001; 48–49. 8. Bohman, J. Public Deliberation: Pluralism, Complexity and Democracy; MIT Press: Cambridge, 1996; Bohman, J. Complexity, Pluralism, and the Constitutional State: On Habermas's Faktizitat und Geltung. Law and Society Review 1994, 28, 920–928. 9. Baber and Bartlett, 2001; 47–48. 11. Rawls, 1995; 144. 13. Rawls, 1999; 109. 14. Rawls, 1993; 224. 16. Habermas, 1996. 17. Habermas, 1996; 164. 18. Habermas, 1996; 351. 20. Habermas, 1996; 351. 21. Habermas, 1970; 57. 22. Habermas, 1996; 320. 23. Habermas, 1970; 67. 24. Habermas, 1996; 432. 25. Habermas, 1996. 27. Habermas, 1996; 320. 29. Habermas, 1970; 75. 30. Habermas, 1996; 490. 31. Habermas, 1996; 55. 32. Habermas, 1970; 77–78. 36. Bohman, 1996; 64. 37. Bohman, 1996; 169. 38. Bohman, 1996; 46. 45. Stone, 2002; 312–314. 46. Habermas, 1996; 188. 49. Rawls, 1999; 464. 50. Rawls, 1993; 326–327. 51. Rawls, 1993; 251. 52. Habermas, 1996; 486–487. 57. Habermas, 1970; 88. 62. Brulle defines an Astroturf organization as one that looks like a grassroots organization, but it “is a nonrepresentative organization that could not pass the legal criteria of a representative one. . . . It is based on economic or political sponsorship and/or mass mailings.” Brulle, 2000; 91. 66. John, D. Civic Environmentalism: Alternatives to Regulation in States and Communities; CQ Press: Washington, DC, 1994; Weber, E. Bringing Society Back In: Grassroots Ecosystem Management, Accountability, and Sustainable Communities; MIT Press: Cambridge, MA, 2003. 83. Bohman, 1996; 139–141.