Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
6.2 The promise of deliberation
6.2.1 Transforming preferences
Green political theorists argue that the primary concern of politics
'
should be the transformation of preferences
rather
than their
.
13
The reference to
aggregation
relates to the thought
processes by which people rank possible outcomes. Brown contends
that people possess
'
'
preferences
'
'
'
'
held values
representing an
enduring conception
of the preferable
based on which they assign value to different possibil-
ities.
14
Elster uses the terminology of
'
'
fundamental preferences
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and
'
to describe this evaluation with factual beliefs
about the means that would be most likely to deliver preferred ends
providing the link between them.
15
Both Brown and Elster argue that the
assignation of values and the derivation of preferences are affected by the
context in which these thought processes are conducted and the range of
information available to those making a choice.
16
Challenges to habitual
modes of preference ordering may also prompt re
derived preferences
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ection on the validity
'
of a person
s scheme of held values.
The transformation of preferences is regarded as essential if change
in society
s relationship with the environment is to occur.
17
The con-
cern is that people, unless they revise the way in which they attribute
value, will continue to place what is in their personal self-interest ahead
of outcomes that would be of value to society as a whole. An individ-
ualistic approach both to personal decision-making and under a
system of government that aims to maximise welfare by identifying
solutions that match the desires of the largest number is unlikely to
prioritise the long-term bene
'
ts of environmental protection over
13
J. Elster, Sour Grapes: Studies in the Subversion of Rationality (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1983), p. 35, quoted in Barry,
'
Rethinking Green Politics
'
,p.226;
J. Barry,
Sustainability, Political Judgement and Citizenship: Connecting Green
Politics and Democracy
'
in B. Doherty and M. de Geus (eds) Democracy and Green
Political Thought: Sustainability, Rights and Citizenship (London: Routledge, 1996),
pp. 122
'
3.
14
T. C. Brown,
-
'
The Concept of Value in Resource Allocation
'
(1984) 60 Land Economics,
232
-
4.
15
J. Elster,
in J. Elster (ed.) Deliberative Democracy (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1998), pp. 6
'
Introduction
'
-
8.
16
Elster,
'
Introduction
'
, pp. 6
-
8; Brown,
'
The Concept of Value
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, 234
-
7.
17
Barry,
'
Rethinking Green Politics
'
, pp. 121, 226; Meadowcroft,
'
Deliberative Democracy
'
,
p. 184; Jacobs,
'
Environmental Valuation
'
,pp.211
-
12; Barry,
'
Sustainability
'
,pp.122
-
3.
