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and whether this provides grounds for questioning its potential ef
cacy
in ecological governance.
The second is the suggestion that deliberation will only in
uence those
who take part in the process itself. The preferences of persons who have not
been involved will therefore remain unchanged, and, consequently, are
unlikely to be positively inclined towards policies that may impinge signi
-
cantly on their personal freedoms. A response to this is that the introduction
of a more deliberative approach to democracy would improve con
dence in
the political system and therefore incline the public in general to accept
decisions emanating from it. Smith argues that the development of a politics
in which there is better provision for meaningful citizen participation may
provide a means of overcoming alienation and restoring trust and legitimacy
in political institutions.
56
Thefactthatmembersofthepublichavebeen
involved with making decisions and have had a transparent in
uence on
them may also increase the likelihood that their fellow citizens will receive
them and the values they espouse as founded on publicly agreed norms.
57
That said, the representativeness of deliberation and whether positions
reached through it can provide a reliable platform for binding decision-
making has also been raised as a potential problem with deliberative
democracy. I consider this issue and the question of how fora for public
participation can be designed to promote the positive aspects of the process
whilst addressing practical dif
culties with its conduct in
Section 6.3.3
.
6.3 Putting deliberation into practice: challenges
and responses
Arguments for deliberative democracy are closely related to the theory of
communicative rationality.
58
This posits that if political debate is con-
ducted through impartial institutions in which those affected by a
proposed decision or their representatives are included, and which
allow for undistorted communication as a basis for reaching a consensus,
then the public good will out.
59
The value of this theory as a critique of
56
Smith,
'
Liberal Democracy
'
,pp.145
-
6.
57
Barry,
'
Sustainability
'
,p.125;Smith,
'
Liberal Democracy
'
,p.145.
58
See the account of Habermas
'
theory of communicative rationality at Tewdwr-Jones and
Allmendinger,
'
Deconstructing Communicative Rationality
'
, 1975
-
7.
59
Tewdwr-Jones and Allmendinger,
'
Deconstructing Communicative Rationality
'
, 1976;
A. Dobson,
in B. Doherty
and M. de Geus (eds) Democracy and Green Political Thought: Sustainability, Rights and
Citizenship (London: Routledge, 1996), pp. 140
'
Democratising Green Theory: Preconditions and Principles
'
-
1.
