Deliberative Democracy, Participation, and OECD Peer Reviews of Environmental Policies

Abstract

Deliberative democracy has attracted increasing attention in political science and has been suggested as a normative ideal for evaluation. This article analyzes to what extent evaluations carried out in a highly government-driven manner can nevertheless contribute to deliberative democracy. This potential is examined by taking the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's environmental performance reviews as an example of an expertled evaluative process built on the ideals of representative democracy. The author argues that although they are not participatory, these reviews lay the groundwork for deliberative democracy by "empowering" weaker actors within governments and by improving the factual basis for political debate and decision making. This example suggests that to enhance deliberative democracy, the evaluation process need not be highly inclusive, dialogical, and deliberative but that a broader view is needed, encompassing the indirect impacts of evaluation on power relations and on the knowledge basis on which decision making relies.

The evaluation of climate policy: theory and emerging practice in Europe

“…The extent to which such evaluations employ documentary analysis is somewhat surprising given the theoretical claims made about reflexivity being enhanced through using participatory methods. This finding about climate policy evaluation practices is in line with the argument of authors who suggest that the relationship between reflexivity and participatory methods is more complex than often assumed (Owens et al 2004;Lehtonen 2006). Turning finally to participation, this aspect was assessed in two ways.…”

Un sistema de discusión seguro con participación anónima a través de servicios Web

“…La democracia deliberativa fundamenta entonces su importancia en los siguientes aspectos [17]: la contribución de diferentes actores mejora la calidad técnica de las decisiones; la mejora de la legitimidad de las decisiones a través de la participación; la promoción del aprendizaje individual y colectivo; la convicción ética de que los ciudadanos tienen el derecho de influenciar directamente las decisiones que les afectan; y la limitación de la influencia de grupos de poder.…”

“…Complementando las características descritas anteriormente, podemos identificar algunos requerimientos relacionados al proceso de la deliberación democrática, entre ellos [17]: establecer reglas a priori y en forma clara; emplear métodos que aseguren a los participantes que no existe manipulación; estructurar el proceso en forma clara y en fases progresivas; asegurar que el método de decisión final sea validable por los participantes; y acotar los objetivos y duración de los procesos.…”

Post-(sustainable) development?

“…But just because this may be more of an expert-driven process this is not to say that the reports can be dismissed as useless or that overlaps do not exist with participatory approaches. The reviews can play a role in informing debate at many levels (international, national and local) among members countries even if they come from such a 'top down' and technocratic source (Lehtonen, 2006). While they provide one perspective they can also be a part of a discourse amongst the 'local', perhaps mediated by exposure in the media.…”