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these potential bene
ts, I conclude that the use of deliberative institu-
tions for public participation in the new structures for governance
I propose should at least be explored. If the claims made for it are
realised, deliberation would clearly have an important part to play in
promoting a societal embrace of ecological values.
Whilst the appeal of deliberation in the abstract is widely recognised,
it has been questioned whether its putative advantages can be realised in
practice. In
Section 6.3
. I consider the different aspects of the gulf that
some commentators argue exists between deliberation as a theoretical
construct and the realities of political decision-making.
11
Iagreethat
results may well fall short of the ideal when this is confronted with the
'
of everyday life, including existing power imbalances and
unequal capacities to participate in debate. Even so, I argue that the use
of deliberative participation for considering how ecological policies
might be implemented should not be discounted. There are responses
to concerns raised over deliberation, the ef
messiness
'
cacy of which can only be
tested through their application. Indeed, a problemwith the debate is the
limited availability of empirical evidence against which to test the posi-
tions of competing schools of thought.
12
In addition, it would be far
preferable to see if deliberation can be made to work than to fall back on
more limited forms of public engagement through remote consultation.
As I argue in
Section 6.3.4
., these, whilst they may have a greater reach,
possess none of the potential positives of deliberation and would not
therefore provide adequate support for an ecological transition.
11
For example see Tewdwr-Jones and Allmendinger,
'
Deconstructing Communicative
Rationality
'
,
1975
; Owen ,
'
Engaging the Public
'
, 1141; D. Chalm ,
'
The
Reconstitution of European Public Spheres
'
(2003) 9 European Law Journal, 127;
S. C. Stokes,
in J. Elster (ed.) Deliberative Democracy
(Cambridge:CambridgeUniversityPress,1998),p.123;K.Bäckstrandetal.,
'
Pathologies of Deliberation
'
'
The
Promise of New Modes of Environmental Governance
in K. Bäckstrand, J. Khan,
A. Kronsell and E. Lövbrand (eds) Environmental Politics and Deliberative Democracy:
Examining the Promise of NewModes of Governance (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2010),
pp. 16
'
-
18. See also Smith,
'
Democratic Innovations
'
,pp.11,13
-
20. Smith
'
s summary of
captures the main
points that have been made to support the claim that the deliberative ideal cannot be
realised in practice.
12
W. F. Baber and R. V. Bartlett, Deliberative Environmental Politics: Democracy and
Ecological Rationality (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2005), pp. 121,128; Smith,
'
arguments presented by
'
sceptics and critics of citizen participation
'
Liberal Democracy
'
,pp.149
-
50. See also Bäckstrand et al.,
'
New Modes of
Environmental Governance
9
although both works contribute signi
cantly to academic study of whether the theoret-
ically perceived bene
ts of deliberative democracy can be realised in practice.
'
,p.4andSmith,
'
Democratic Innovations
'
,pp.8
-
