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Elemental Challenges: Environmental Troubles Beyond the Limits of Democracy

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Elemental Challenges: Environmental Troubles Beyond the Limits of Democracy University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Open Access Dissertations 9-2010 Elemental Challenges: Environmental Troubles beyond the Limits of Democracy Brad Mapes-Martins University of Massachusetts Amherst, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/open_access_dissertations Part of the Political Science Commons Recommended Citation Mapes-Martins, Brad, "Elemental Challenges: Environmental Troubles beyond the Limits of Democracy" (2010). Open Access Dissertations. 295. https://scholarworks.umass.edu/open_access_dissertations/295 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Open Access Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ELEMENTAL CHALLENGES: ENVIRONMENTAL TROUBLES BEYOND THE LIMITS OF DEMOCRACY A Dissertation Presented by BRADLEY T. MAPES-MARTINS Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY September 2010 Department of Political Science © Copyright by Bradley T. Mapes-Martins 2010 All Rights Reserved ELEMENTAL -CHALLENGES: ENVIRONMENTAL TROUBLES BEYOND THE LIMITS OF DEMOCRACY A Dissertation Presented by BRADLEY T. MAPES-MARTINS Approved as to style and content by: Nicholas Xenos, Chair Barbara Cruikshank, Member John Hird, Member David Glassberg, Member John Hird, Department Chair Department of Political Science ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to the members of my committee: Nicholas Xenos, Barbara Cruikshank, John Hird, and David Glassberg. Their willingness to listen to the earliest formulations of the ideas presented here and to accept the task of guiding and shaping them into a unified project is a benefit that I will surely never be able to repay. And thank you also for encouraging a project aimed at discrete audiences. During my time at University of Massachusetts, Amherst, I had the privilege of learning from Roberto Alejandro Rivera. His meticulous pursuit of a line of inquiry has served as an example for me on many occasions. Appreciation is also due those friends who accepted fragments and gave in return polished insights: Tim Delaune, Lauren Handley, Casey Stevens, Jeremy Wolf, and Lena Zuckerwise. Thank you does not even begin to express how exceptional it felt to learn with you all. I would like also to thank my colleagues in the Department of Political Science at University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point, who provided optimum conditions for my success. A special debt is owed to David Lay Williams who has given so much of his time and energy to mentoring me, showing far more patience and concern than I deserve. Behind the scenes, my family graciously withstood 'answers' to questions they never asked. Along the way, everyone came to accept on faith that I would eventually finish. No support has achieved more, though, than yours Megan. O que eu abraço, que me reconstrói. iv ABSTRACT ELEMENTAL CHALLENGES: ENVIRONMENTAL TROUBLES BEYOND THE LIMITS OF DEMOCRACY SEPTEMBER 2010 BRADLEY T. MAPES-MARTINS, B.A., THE EVERGREEN STATE COLLEGE Ph.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Nicholas Xenos From an examination of how environmental issues reshape politics, this inquiry focuses on the theoretical grounds of deliberative democratic theory to ask whether such a vision offers the best means of resolving environmental problems. Arguing that the very terms in which environmental politics have been defined retain features better suited to previous historical circumstances, the analysis proceeds from features typical of environmental problems to a more context-specific assessment of the role for democratic participation. Engaging the works of Jürgen Habermas, the author details the way in which deliberative democratic theory is indebted to a concept of communicative action that defines complex environmental issues as beyond the scope for successful resolution. Covering theoretical as well as empirical aspects of environmental deliberation, this inquiry includes a comparative framework for evaluating the performance of differing deliberative institutions according to the type of environmental problem addressed. Following this critical assessment of deliberative democratic theory, the analysis turns to the effects of authoritative expertise on democratic involvement in environmental issues. Given that authoritative expertise cannot be dispensed with despite the asymmetry it v introduces into the relationship between experts and lay citizens, it is asserted that the conditions for justifiable deference should be encouraged by cultivating institutions that promote trust between experts and lay citizens. The analysis proceeds to link the way in which decentralized institutions decrease the risks inherent in trust with an assessment of the precautionary principle as a standard against which regulatory decisions can be evaluated. The inquiry concludes by turning to proposals for global democratic governance, arguing that the fragmented landscape of international environmental law offers increased opportunities for resolving environmental disputes due to the proliferation of coordinated but decentralized institutions and codification of the precautionary principle. vi CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................ iv ABSTRACT .........................................................................................................................v LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................. xi LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... xii CHAPTER INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................................1 I VINDICATING A POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT ...............................................9 A. Political Implications of Environmental Problems ........................................11 1. Complex Issues .....................................................................................12 a. Sensitivity ...................................................................................14 b. Irreversibility..............................................................................15 c. Non-linear Resilience .................................................................16 2. Spatial Issues ........................................................................................17 a. Diffuse Causes ...........................................................................17 b. Dispersed Effects .......................................................................18 3. Temporal Issues…………………………………………………….. 19 a. Accumulation .............................................................................20 B. The Limits of Legitimacy ...............................................................................22 1. Originary Political Imagination and Legitimacy ..................................23 2. Finitary Political Imagination and Illegitimacy ....................................34 3. Politics of the Present, Politics in the Environ .....................................44 vii C. The Bounds of Authoritative Relationships ...................................................50 1. The Arch of Vindication .......................................................................54 2. Justification and Deferral…………………………………………… 55 3. Vindication and Accountability…………………………………….. 58 II. THEORETICAL LIMITATIONS TO ENVIRONMENTALLY ORIENTED COMMUNICATIVE ACTION .............................................................................65 A. Modernity as Historical Diagnosis and as Unfinished Project ......................69 B. The Promise of Commensurability ................................................................81 C. Communicative Motivation and Legally Enforced Responsibility ................85 1. The Fragility of the Lifeworld………………………………………. 87 2. Dissension and Diminished Lifeworld Background………………… 90 3. The Principle of Motivation and the Function of Legal Sanctions ....100 D. Towards a Prudential Politics of the Environment ......................................110 III. A COMPARATIVE FRAMEWORK FOR ANALYZING ENVIRONMENTAL DELIBERATION.............................................................113 A. From Normative Theory to Working Hypotheses .......................................117 B. Cross-Case Inference: Controlling for Problem Type .................................122 C. Constituting Cases ........................................................................................125 1. Assumptions and Implications: The General Set of Deliberative Cases ...................................................................................................127 a. Individual Disposition and Group Dynamics ...........................130 b. Procedure Type and Problem Type ..........................................131 c. Dimensions of Comparison ......................................................134 2. Comparisons and Hypotheses: The Particular Set of Environmental Cases ...................................................................................................137 viii a. Interpreting the Cases
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