Ecology and democratic governance: toward a deliberative model of environmental politics

AbstractThe work of James Bohman can be interpreted as an attempt to synthesize the theories of Jurgen Habermas and John Rawls in a way that reconciles their divergent approaches to deliberative democracy. His abandonment of impartiality in public discourse, his elevation of diversity to the level of a primary deliberative value and his treatment of preferences as (to some extent) cultural givens are problematic, especially from the environmentalists' point of view. However, his efforts have highlighted several important questions that must be answered before a deliberative model of environmental decision making can emerge.