Seeking Consensus : Discourses of Nature and Democratic Possibilities

Many students of public policy acknowledge the clash of values that defines the conflict between environmentalists and their opponents. However, less work has been done to examine ways in which the clash of values - represented in disparate discourses of nature - among environmentalists themselves has contributed to disarray and incoherence in the American environmental policy regime. This paper builds on a genealogy of environmental discourses to assess the potential for consensus-building among environmental discourses and their adherents presented by different democratic institutions. First, I defend the search for consensus in part by reference to other policy regimes in which a basic common core discourse serves to guide and structure debate (which is never ruled out) within the arena. Drawing on my prior analysis of environmental discourses, I identify possible concepts or values that could serve as foundations for a shared discourse. Second, I turn to democratic theory to assess the consensus potential of different models. I argue that collaborative and deliberative democratic institutions produce a greater chance for identifying and building on common values among discourses of nature than traditional adversarial processes, and thus could lead to a more consistent and coherent environmental policy regime