Volume 3, Issue 2, Fall 2006
Scott F. Aikin
Pages 52-58
Democratic Deliberation, Public Reason, and Environmental Politics
The activity of democratic deliberation is governed by the norm of public reason – namely, that reasons justifying public policy must both be pursuant of shared goods and be shareable by all reasonable discussants. Environmental policies based on controversial theories of value, as a consequence, are in danger of breaking the rule that would legitimate their enforcement.