FORESIGHT AS A NEW FORM OF POLITICAL PARTICIPATION AND DELIBERATE DEMOCRACY?

摘要

In this paper, it is discussed, what the actual participatory input of FS is and what the actual impact of this approach is with regard to policy making. Both are questions, whom all participatory approaches especially in the field of science and technology have to deal with. This paper makes the point that the democratic and participatory aspects of FS are generally overrated but that nonetheless FS has some noteworthy potential of inclusion of wider civil society if certain conditions are met. Some of these conditions are linked to the institutional arrangements of a FS context. In order to differentiate FS initiatives more precisely, the legitimacy of input, throughput and output factors are introduced and discussed.