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Original Articles

It's good to talk: Deliberative institutions for environmental policy

Pages 133-152 | Published online: 19 Aug 2010

  • Bohman , J. 1998 . "The Coming of Age of Deliberative Democracy . Journal of Political Philosophy , 6 ( 4 ) : 400 – 25 .
  • Bohman , J. and Rehg , W. , eds. 1997 . Deliberative Democracy , Cambridge : MIT . for a survey. The leading early statements of deliberative democracy are all
  • Elster , J. , ed. 1998 . Deliberative Democracy , Cambridge : CUP . which also contains important recent papers. Another key collection
  • Cohen , J. "Democracy and liberty," ” . In Elster, Deliberative Democracy 186 Cohen assumes that in an aggregative model the collective decision is positively responsive to the interests of each person. My definition accords with the approach of social choice theory
  • Pettit , P. 1998 . "Institutional Design and Rational Choice," ” . In The Theory of Institutional Design , Edited by: Goodin , R. Cambridge : CUP . Rational choice theory is easy to recognize but hard to pin down. It may refer to behavior driven by self-interest defined in terms of economic gain and social acceptance, or less restrictively, "consistent" behavior according to the technical canons of decision theory. An excellent discussion of the former in a context relevant to that here
  • Anand , P. 1993 . Foundations of Rational Choice under Risk , Oxford : Clarendon . For a good critical introduction to the latter, I shall adopt the former interpretation, while noting that, particularly in contexts of uncertainty, this is heavily influenced by decision theory
  • Aldred , J. 1998 . "Land Use in the Fens: Lessons from the Ely Citizens' Jury . Ecos , 19 ( 2 ) : 31 – 8 .
  • Aldred , J. and Jacobs , M. 2000 . "Citizens and Wetlands: Evaluating the Ely Citizens' Jury . Ecological Economics , 34 ( 2 ) : 217 – 32 .
  • Aldred , J. and Jacobs , M. 1997 . Citizens and Wetlands: Report of the Ely Citizens' Jury , Lancaster University : Centre for the Study of Environmental Change .
  • Fearon , J. "Deliberation as Discussion," ” . In Elster, Deliberative Democracy 44 – 68 . Note however the term deliberative institution will be retained in preference to the clumsy discussive institution
  • Sunstein , C. 1993 . Democracy and the Problem of Free Speech , 247 New York : Free Press .
  • Jacobs , M. 1997 . "Environmental Valuation, Deliberative Democracy and Public Decision-Making Institutions," ” . In Valuing Nature? , Edited by: Foster , J. London : Routledge . The distinction between an institution with decision-making power, and one with power only to make a recommendation to a decision-making authority, is ignored in this paper. But, 'Decision' will be understood as the output of an institution, regardless of whether its participants have power to enforce it. Of course the possession or absence of such power will typically affect the decision
  • Hylland , A. 1986 . "The Purpose and Significance of Social Choice Theory," ” . In Foundations of Social Choice Theory , Edited by: Elster , J. and Hylland , A. Cambridge : CUP . In general an aggregation device need not determine a unique decision. The outcome may depend on factors usually held to be irrelevant, such as the order in which votes are counted. These difficulties will be ignored in what follows, although form the basis of an important critique of aggregative procedures
  • Sen , A. 1997 . "Individual Preference as the Basis of Social Choice," ” . In Social Choice Re-examined , Edited by: Arrow , K. , Sen , A. and Suzumara , K. London : Macmillan . While social choice theory is often regarded, both by supporters and critics, as one element in the RCT perspective on politics, it is strictly independent of RCT; a definition of aggregative institutions inconsistent with the former need not be so with the latter
  • Sen , A. 1995 . "Rationality and Social Choice . American Economic Review , 85 ( 1 ) : 1 – 24 .
  • Beckerman , W. and Pasek , J. 1997 . "Plural Values and Environmental Valuation," . Environmental Values , 6 : 65 – 86 . See, for instance, the tone of remarks
  • Brouwer , R. , Powe , N. , Turner , R. Kerry , Bateman , I. and Langford , I. 1999 . "Public Attitudes to Contingent Valuation and Public Consultation . Environmental Values , 8 ( 3 ) : 325 – 47 .
  • Sagoff , M. 1998 . "Aggregation and Deliberation in Valuing Environmental Public Goods: A Look Beyond Contingent Pricing . Ecological Economics , 24 ( 2-3 ) : 213 – 30 . 221
  • Elster , J. "Introduction," ” . In Elster, Deliberative Democracy 1 – 18 . Elster goes on to sketch a definition of better decisions in terms of epistemic virtues, an approach followed here
  • Elster , J. 1986 . The Multiple Self , Cambridge : CUP . Moreover, such putative advantages tend to be by-products of the epistemic virtues. Pursued directly they can be self-defeating
  • Elster , J. 1995 . "Strategic Uses of Argument," ” . In Barriers to Conflict Resolution , Edited by: Arrow , K. New York : Norton .
  • Fearon , J. "Deliberation as Discussion" ” . In "'Claro!': An Essay on Discursive Machismo,", Elster, Deliberative Democracy Edited by: Gambetta , D. 19 – 43 .
  • Goodin , R. "Laundering Preferences," ” . In Elster and Hylland, Foundations of Social Choice Theory 75 – 102 . A strong theoretical claim sometimes replaces the empirical one here: merely participating in a public discussion logically presupposes the use only of justifications in terms of the public interest by participants, on pain of "performative contradiction" lest they do otherwise
  • Habermas , J. 1990 . Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action, translated , Edited by: Lenhardt , C. and Nicholsen , S. Cambridge : Polity Press . This strong claim is not examined here. Nothing in the case for discussion outlined here demands it
  • J. Elster, "Strategic Uses of Argument"; J. Fearon, "Deliberation as Discussion."
  • J. Elster, "Strategic Uses of Argument."
  • Johnson , J. "Arguing for Deliberation: Some Skeptical Considerations," ” . In Elster, Deliberative Democracy 171
  • J. Elster, "Strategic Uses of Argument."
  • Johnson . "Arguing for Deliberation," ” . 172
  • Johnson . "Arguing for Deliberation," ” . 172 note 47
  • Elster , J. "The Market and the Forum: Three Varieties of Political Theory," ” . In Elster and Hylland, Foundations of Social Choice Theory 113
  • Bohman , J. 1996 . Public Deliberation , Cambridge : MIT .
  • Aristotle . 1946 . “ Rhetoric ” . Edited by: Roberts , W. Vol. II , 1 Oxford : Clarendon .
  • O'Neill , J. 1997 . "Deliberation and its Discontents." . Paper presented at the Environmental Justice, Global Ethics for the 21st Century . 1997 , Australia. University of Melbourne .
  • Mackie , G. "All Men are Liars," ” . In Elster, Deliberative Democracy 69 – 96 . A good critique may be found
  • Johnson , S. 1963 . "The Adventurer, Saturday 28th April 1753," ” . In "The Idler" and "The Adventurer, " , Edited by: Bate , W. New Haven : Yale UP . quoted in Mackie, "AU Men are Liars," 85
  • O'Neill, "Deliberation and its Discontents."
  • Johnson . "Arguing for Deliberation," ” . 172
  • Sen , A. 1977 . "Rational Fools," . Philosophy and Public Affairs , 6 : 317 – 44 . "Strategic calculations" are the ultimate spur of any action if they are trivially understood to mean "wanting the outcome of the action." But impartial arguments are possible; that is, the mere fact that an agent argues for outcome X does not entail that her interests are served by X occurring. This mistake is usually derived from another. That an agent wants X to occur, that she prefers X to some other outcome, does not entail her interests will be better served or she will be better off with outcome X. See
  • Fearon . "Deliberation as Discussion," ” . 65 note 16
  • Gowans , C. 1987 . Moral Dilemmas , Oxford : OUP .
  • Nagel , T. 1979 . "The fragmentation of value," ” . In Mortal Questions , Cambridge : CUP .
  • Williams , B. 1979 . "Conflicts of Values," ” . In The Idea of Freedom , Edited by: Ryan , A. Oxford : OUP .
  • Knight , J. and Johnson , J. 1994 . "Aggregation and Deliberation," . Political Theory , 22 : 277 – 97 . This is related to the "cheap-talk" objection to be discussed below, although here the emphasis is on whether talk is ignored, even if it is credible. J. Elster, "Strategic Uses of Argument"; J. Johnson, "Arguing for Deliberation"
  • Fearon . "Deliberation as Discussion," ” . 54
  • Fearon . "Deliberation as Discussion," ” . 47
  • O'Neill, Ecology, Policy and Politics, chap. 8.
  • Kuran , T. 1990 . "Private and Public Preferences," . Economics and Philosophy , 6 : 1 – 26 .
  • Kuran , T. 1995 . Private Truths, Public Lies , Cambridge : Harvard UP .
  • J. Elster, "The Market and the Forum"; J. Elster, "Strategic Uses of Argument."
  • Sanders , L. 1997 . "Against Deliberation . Political Theory , 25 ( 3 ) : 347 – 76 .
  • Simon , H. 1983 . Models of Bounded Rationality , 2 vols , Cambridge : MIT Press . Much of his work is collected
  • Fearon . "Deliberation as Discussion," ” . 49 – 50 .
  • Fearon . "Deliberation as Discussion," ” . 50 – 2 .
  • Janis , I. and Mann , L. 1972 . Victims of Groupthink , Boston : Houghton Mifflin . The classic reference on "group think"
  • Jacobs , M. 1997 . "Environmental Valuation, Deliberative Democracy and Public Decision-Making Institutions," ” . In Valuing Nature? , Edited by: Foster , J. London : Routledge .
  • Nussbaum , M. , Mara , G.M. and Richardson , H.S. 1990 . "Aristotelian Social Democracy," ” . In Liberalism and the Good , Edited by: Douglass , R. Bruce . London : Routledge . On Aristotle, see for
  • Sherman , N. 1989 . The Fabric of Character: Aristotle's Theory of Virtue , Oxford : Clarendon .
  • Richardson , H. 1994 . Practical Reasoning about Final Ends , Cambridge : CUP . Dewey is central
  • Richardson , H. 2001 . "The Stupidity of the Cost-Benefit Standard," ” . In Cost-Benefit Analysis: Legal, Economic and Philosophical Perspectives , Edited by: Adler , M. and Posner , E. Chicago : Chicago UP .

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