A greener alternative? deliberative democracy meetsudlocal government in Australia

摘要

In recent decades a search has been conducted among democratic theorists to find auddecision making form that is both democratic, and able to produce outcomes that mayudbe seen to favour the life supporting capacity of our natural systems. One form ofuddecision making that has gained considerable interest from green theorists isudparticipatory or deliberative democracy. It is suggested that compared to liberaludrepresentative structures, a deliberative conception of politics will allow for a moreudinformed policy process that enables the discovery and support of generalisable ratherudthan particular interests. As a consequence, citizen deliberation will produceudoutcomes that support the pre-eminence of the natural environment, while providingudgreater legitimacy and compliance with the agreements reached.udThese assumptions about the environmental credentials of deliberative forums are notudentirely theoretical. In recent decades there has been a gradual movement within localudgovernment in Australia towards the use of participatory or deliberative models toudsupport its existing representative structure. In particular, this has been driven by theudemerging role of local government in addressing environmental issues. It is shownudthat despite questions regarding their reliability, many of the assumptions made withinudthe deliberative democratic literature also exist within local processes to deliverudfavourable environmental outcomes. The thesis therefore tests the purported benefitsudof deliberative structures. It finds that citizen deliberation can produce more informedudpolicy processes. However, the notion that deliberative structures will produce bothudenvironmentally favourable and universally legitimate outcomes is dependent upon audrange of contextual factors.udTo support this thesis, existing research on public deliberation and two case studies inudAustralian local government are presented and examined. The first case studyudinspects the use of a precinct system at the Glenorchy City Council to address issuesudincluding waste management, while the second concerns the use of a citizens jury toudaddress stormwater issues at the Waverley Municipal Council. Although a range ofudfactors prove to have significant impacts upon the environmental outcomes that wereudachieved, the thesis concludes that the deliberative model can facilitate the greening of decision making, and enable a collective realisation of the benefits of activeudcitizenship.ud