Participatory Environmental Governance: Civil Society, Citizen Engagement, and Participatory Policy Expertise

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Fischer
Keyword(s):  
Deliberative Democracy ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Environmental Politics ◽  
Community Forestry ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Participatory Governance ◽  
Political Struggles ◽  
New Models ◽  
Participatory Policy ◽  
Environmental Democracy

In search of a more practical approach to environmental democracy, the theory and practice of participatory governance are presented as an alternative that can incorporate key elements of environmental deliberative democracy but at the same time speaks more specifically to ongoing political practices. The chapter first surveys the rise of governance and its emergence in environmental politics. It then examines the claims for governance, in particular a more democratic form of governance, participatory governance. Several concrete examples from Brazil (participatory budgeting), India (people’s planning), and Nepal (community forestry) are briefly sketched, including new models of participatory expertise that have emerged with them. Grounded in real-world political struggles against hierarchy and injustice, participatory governance is seen to address the sorts of conflicts that climate change will increasingly usher in.

Deliberative Democracy and the Environment

2018 ◽  
pp. 754-767
Author(s):  
Walter Baber ◽  
Robert Bartlett
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Deliberative Democracy ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Environmental Politics ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Natural Experiments ◽  
Democratic Deliberation ◽  
Quarter Century ◽  
What Works ◽  
Democracy Theory

Deliberative democratic practices are especially well suited to the challenges of environmental governance, particularly under conditions associated with the Anthropocene. But this environmental promise comes with attendant perils with respect to democratic deliberation as both a form of politics generally and a strategy for environmental protection. Developing over more than a quarter-century, conceptual advancements in our understanding of deliberative democracy theory have enriched our understanding of potential contributions to environmental politics and governance, while our knowledge of what works, derived from careful empirical studies of innumerable natural experiments, has expanded as well. Yet still more research is needed to provide a full appreciation of the ultimate potential and the inherent limitations of ongoing efforts to combine deliberative democratic theory and pragmatic problem solving to address the challenges confronting environmental governance in the circumstances of the Anthropocene.

scholarly journals Let the people decide: citizen deliberation on the role of GMOs in Mali’s agriculture

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michel P. Pimbert ◽  
Boukary Barry
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Deliberative Democracy ◽  
National Policy ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Women Farmers ◽  
Deliberative Process ◽  
The Future ◽  
Participatory Policy ◽  
The Government ◽  
Gm Technology

AbstractThis paper describes and critically reflects on a participatory policy process which resulted in a government decision not to introduce genetically modified (GM) cotton in farmers’ fields in Mali (West Africa). In January 2006, 45 Malian farmers gathered in Sikasso to deliberate on GM cotton and the future of farming in Mali. As an invited policy space convened by the government of Sikasso region, this first-time farmers' jury was unique in West Africa. It was known as l’ECID—Espace Citoyen d’Interpellation Démocratique (Citizen’s Space for Democratic Deliberation)—and it had an unprecedented impact on the region. In this Deliberative and Inclusive Process (DIP), the ECID combined the citizens’ jury method with indigenous methods for debate and dialogue, including the traditional African palaver. The ECID brought together male and female producers representing every district in the Sikasso region of southern Mali, specialist witnesses from various continents and a panel of independent observers, as well as resource persons and members of the national and international press and media. As an experiment in deliberative democracy, the ECID of Sikasso aimed to give men and women farmers the opportunity to share knowledge on the benefits and risks of GM cotton, and make policy recommendations on the future of GM technology in Malian agriculture. Designed as a bottom-up and participatory process, the ECID’s outcomes significantly changed national policy on the release of GM technology and have had an enduring influence in Mali. In this paper, we describe our positionality as action researchers and co-organisers of the ECID. We explain the methodology used for the ECID of Sikasso and critically reflect on the safeguards that were put in place to ensure a balanced and trustworthy deliberative process. The ECID and its key outcomes are discussed in the context of the political economy of GM cotton in West Africa. Last, we briefly highlight the relevance of the ECID for current international debates on racism in the theory and practice deliberative democracy; the production of post-normal transdisciplinary knowledge for technology risk-assessments; and the politics of knowledge in participatory policy-making for food and agriculture.

scholarly journals What is Right and What is Wrong in the Environmental Governance Model? Environmental Regulations for Improving Environmental Sustainability Ratings

2022 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-139
Author(s):  
Jajat S. Ardiwinata ◽  
◽  
Khalid Zaman ◽  
Abdelmohsen A. Nassani ◽  
Mohamed Haffar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Capita Income ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Environmental Politics ◽  
Environmental Regulations ◽  
Environmental Laws ◽  
Government Effectiveness ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
Environmental Democracy

The improper allocation of economic and environmental resources damages the United Nations sustainable development Agenda, which remains a challenge for policymakers to stop the rot through efficient governance mechanisms. The study designed an efficient environmental governance framework by extending the different governance factors linked to the environmental sustainability ratings in the cross-section of 67 countries. The results of the two-regime based estimator show that environmental corruption (regime-1), environmental politics (regime-2), and environmental laws (regime-2) negatively correlated with the environmental sustainability rating, whereas environmental democracy (regime-1 & 2) positively correlated with the environmental sustainability agenda across countries. The government effectiveness and the country’s per capita income both escalates environmental sustainability ratings. The results align with the Demopolis theory, the effective regulatory theory, and the theory of law and politics. The causality estimates show that environmental corruption and government effectiveness causes environmental politics and economic growth. In contrast, environmental democracy and environmental regulations cause a country’s per capita income. The bidirectional causality is found between environmental regulations and environmental corruption on the one hand, while environmental regulations and environmental politics Granger cause each other on the other hand. The results show the importance of environmental regulations in managing ecological corruption and politics across countries. The variance decomposition analysis suggested that environmental politics likely influenced the environmental sustainability agenda, followed by government effectiveness and environmental democracy for the next ten years. The study emphasized the need to design an efficient environmental governance framework that minimizes environmental corruption and enables them to move towards environmental democracy, stringent environmental laws, and regulations. Government effectiveness would mainly be linked to reducing corruption and political instability to achieve clean, green and sustainable development.

Sustaining Democracy in Hard Times: Participatory Theory for Local Environmental Governance

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Fischer
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Democratic Politics ◽  
Participatory Governance ◽  
Deliberative Politics ◽  
Hard Times ◽  
Climate Crisis ◽  
Participatory Theory

This final chapter explores ideas previously taken up and relates them to political theory, democratic deliberative politics in particular. Up to this point, these ideas have been presented as theoretical contributions to both participatory governance and the relocalization movement. The discussion here seeks to extend the theoretical perspective more specifically to a number of important but relatively neglected traditions in democratic political theory, especially as they relate to ideas taken from the writings of Bookchin and Sale. This involves the theories of associative democracy, insurgent democratic politics, and participatory or democratic expertise. These theoretical orientations are provided as steps in search of a broader environmental political theory that can address the democratic struggles that are anticipated during the socio-ecological climate crisis ahead.

scholarly journals The Governance of Transnational Environmental Harm: Addressing New Modes of Accountability/Responsibility

2008 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 8-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Mason
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Degradation ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Environmental Politics ◽  
Environmental Harm ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Global Environmental Politics ◽  
Private Authority ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Introductory Paper

Transboundary and global environmental harm present substantial challenges to state-centered (territorial) modalities of accountability and responsibility. The globalization of environmental degradation has triggered regulatory responses at various jurisdictional scales. These governance efforts, featuring various articulations of state and/or private authority, have struggled to address so-called “accountability deficits” in global environmental politics. Yet, it has also become clear that accountability and responsibility norms forged in domestic regulatory contexts cannot simply be transposed across borders. This special issue explores various conceptual perspectives on accountability and responsibility for transnational harm, and examines their application to different actor groups and environmental governance regimes. This introductory paper provides an overview of the major theoretical positions and examines some of the analytical challenges raised by the transnational (re)scaling of accountability and responsibility norms.

A Procedural Idea of Environmental Democracy: the 'Débat Public' Paradigm within the EU Framework

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 85-106
Author(s):  
Alberto Nicòtina
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
National Level ◽  
Research Subject ◽  
Environmental Decision Making ◽  
Legislative Framework ◽  
Débat Public ◽  
Environmental Democracy ◽  
The Eu ◽  
Environmental Decision

The aim of this paper is to analyse the 'débat public' procedure, which finds its roots in the Canadian legal system and its most defined formulation in France, and which more recently has been circulating to Italy – first at the regional level and, since 2016, at the national level. The first part of the paper will thus be devoted to a historical overview of the débat public and to how it is implemented in each of the two legal systems. The second part will subsequently distil the 'paradigm', i. e. those distinctive traits that make the débat public an autonomous research subject, within the multi-layered legislative framework of environmental governance in Europe. Three main features of the paradigm will be pointed out (Participation, Effectiveness, Authority), thus highlighting how it can respond to the needs in light of which it has been designed, namely dealing with proximity conflicts and providing a forum for the construction of shared rational decisions in environmental decision-making. The paper eventually leads to the conclusion that the débat public, with its codified rules and procedures, represents the first and probably the most noticeable attempt towards the institutionalisation and generalisation of deliberative practices in environmental decision-making, thus towards developing a procedural stance in environmental democracy.

The Future of Transparency: Power, Pitfalls and Promises

2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 132-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arthur P. J. Mol
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Effects ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Environmental Politics ◽  
Central Object ◽  
The Future ◽  
New Challenges ◽  
Uncertain Outcomes ◽  
New Research ◽  
Governance Transparency ◽  
Timely Topic

The growing attention to transparency is not an accidental and fashionable wave, soon to be replaced by another timely topic in environmental governance. Transparency is here to stay and to further develop in environmental politics, as it piggy-backs on a number of wider social developments. In assessing the achievements of transparency to date, this article concludes that it has on balance been positive for democracy. But this overall positive past assessment does not automatically extend into the future, as new challenges (and thus new research agendas) lie ahead. The growing importance attached to transparency in environmental politics ensures that it becomes a central object of power struggles, with uncertain outcomes in terms of democracy as well as environmental effects. Markets and states seek to capture transparency arrangements for their own goals, which may not necessarily be in line with assumed normative linkages between transparency, democracy and participation.

Moral Disagreement in a Democracy

1995 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy Gutmann ◽  
Dennis Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Deliberative Democracy ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Moral Disagreement ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
The Political ◽  
Moral Deliberation ◽  
Constitutional Democracy ◽  
American Democracy ◽  
Prominent Feature ◽  
Adequate Response

Moral disagreement about public policies—issues such as abortion, affirmative action, and health care—is a prominent feature of contemporary American democracy. Yet it is not a central concern of the leading theories of democracy. The two dominant democratic approaches in our time—procedural democracy and constitutional democracy—fail to offer adequate responses to the problem of moral disagreement. Both suggest some elements that are necessary in any adequate response, but neither one alone nor both together are sufficient. We argue here that an adequate conception of democracy must make moral deliberation an essential part of the political process. What we call “deliberative democracy” adds an important dimension to the theory and practice of politics that the leading conceptions of democracy neglect.

scholarly journals The Global Environmental Politics and Political Economy of Seafood Systems

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 72-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liam Campling ◽  
Elizabeth Havice
Keyword(s):  
Food Systems ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Food System ◽  
Environmental Politics ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Global Environmental Governance ◽  
Food Regimes ◽  
Global Environmental Politics ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
National Economic

This article situates seafood in the larger intersection between global environmental governance and the food system. Drawing inspiration from the food regimes approach, we trace the historical unfolding of the seafood system and its management between the 1930s and the 2010s. In doing so, we bridge global environmental politics research that has studied either the politics of fisheries management or seafood sustainability governance, and we bring seafood and the fisheries crisis into food regimes scholarship. Our findings reveal that the seafood system has remained firmly dependent on the historical institutions of national seafood production systems and, particularly, on the state-based regulatory regimes that they promulgated in support of national economic and geopolitical interests. As such, seafood systems contribute to a broader, historicized understanding of the hybrid global environmental governance of food systems in which nonstate actors depend heavily upon, and in fact call for the strengthening of, state-based institutions. Our findings reveal that the contemporary private ordering of seafood governance solidifies the centrality of state-based institutions in the struggle for “sustainable” seafood and enables the continued expansionary, volume-driven extractivist logics that produced the fisheries crisis in the first place.

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