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Deliberative democracy and conflict management models have been given increasing attention for their potential consistency and similarities, which is useful knowledge given the opened possibilities of interdisciplinary work. I argue that this debate ought to be broadened to include how conflict transformation and a pragmatic strand of deliberative democracy are aligned with regard to orientation to conflict. First, I offer an account of why conflict transformation’s key values should be seen as valuable for democratic theory to emulate. Second, I show how a pragmatic strand of deliberative democracy is consistent and similar with respect to those key values. Together, these build a framework which offers the ability for practitioners and theorists to pursue interdisciplinary work between two particular strands of deliberative democracy and conflict management which to date have not been given adequate attention.

The focus of this thesis is mainly to investigate the external political process from consensus conference and the correlation between consensus conference and political policy aimed at understanding the external effect of the conference. This thesis also studies the influence of public conference on both the administrative body and city council and the operations of public policy. A case study putting its emphasis on the public conference in installing a harbor cable car system bears a sense of unique significance in the very first consensus conference on municipal agenda in Taiwan. It is found that a consensus conference is perhaps more suitable for local administration to solve municipal issues than for the central government to solve national agenda. Thus, local government should step up its efforts to promote the valuable channel of citizen participation via public conference in an attempt to raise the consciousness of citizenship. The purpose of this article is also to get in-depth knowledge of the correlation between the consensus conference and public policy via comparison and analyses of social theories and publications and to interview dedicated personnel with both the administrative agency and city council for further discussions, which could, in the end, serve as a probable option to solve controversial issues once the deliberative democracy is chosen. The opinions collected via on-site interviews with dedicated administrative agencies (e.g. Bureau of Urban development & Bureau of Human Resources Development) and Kaohsiung city council have been used to analyze and verify the political clout of the consensus onference outside the regular decision-making process, which might become a valuable lesson learned for both the central and local authorities in the future.

Research Project (M.A.) - Simon Fraser University, 2005. / Research Project (Dept. of Political Science) / Simon Fraser University. Also issued in digital format and available on the World Wide Web.

The contemporary notion of sustainability is emerging as a political response to ecological and social problems associated with human development. It is a contested concept - eco-modernists interpret it as a call to rethink or adjust industrial production systems while others interpret it as a fundamental challenge to the dominant development paradigm. Corporations are playing a key role in shaping the discourse. Many argue that since corporations have enormous influence in the global political economy, they must take the lead in the search for sustainability. The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) promotes eco-efficiency - an eco-modernist stance - as the primary business contribution to sustainability. However, the potential of the corporate focus on efficiency to contribute to sustainability is a subject of debate. In this thesis, I use a heterogeneous methodological approach to explore the interaction between corporations (with a focus on multinational corporations) and the discourse of sustainability in order to identify the potential for positive outcomes. I consider the compatibility of aspects of corporate identity and organisational structure to the ethos of sustainability. This leads to an examination of the meeting between corporations and sustainability as a reflexive process, paying particular attention to the ways in which language and mythology serve to uphold or transform existing power relations. I also explore forms of knowledge relevant to sustainability, comparing those that are typically emphasized in corporate enterprise with traditional, Indigenous and local ways of knowing that are essential to sustainability. The knowledge of classical equestrianism is used as an example in this analysis. Practical ways of including all these essential perspectives in the discourse are considered. The thesis concludes that certain aspects of corporate identity, structure and function are incompatible with the ideals of sustainability and that these disparities must be borne in mind as corporations attempt to embrace sustainability. I contend that sustainability requires network approaches that integrate strong and weak relations as well as diverse values and forms of knowledge. Sustainability can only be achieved with broad civic engagement that allows the synergistic combination of all values and knowledges relevant to sustainability. Furthermore, I argue that while corporations’ orientation towards market-based strategies has significant potential to support sustainability, it is limited since the market is fundamentally constituted by a network of weak ties. Therefore the thesis argues that while corporations can provide significant benefits in terms of sustainability, they cannot be expected to lead the sustainability agenda as it requires discursive plurality. The efficacy of the corporate contribution to sustainability will be greatly enhanced if companies are guided by strong democratic processes of deliberation and community engagement.

Thesis (Ph. D., Natural Resources)--University of Idaho, May 2006. / Major professor: Charles C. Harris. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 176-180). Also available online (PDF file) by subscription or by purchasing the individual file.

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Habermas’s work since the turn of the millennium is characterized by an increased interest in the role of religion in politics. One of the most significant theses of this so-called “religious turn” is captured by Habermas’s institutional translation proviso, which calls on citizens to participate in translating religious contributions to public dialogue into a secular language purportedly accessible to all. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the translation proviso with a view both to the political inclusion of religious citizens and to the renewal of the normative resources required for democratic self-determination. By way of a critical engagement with the work of Immanuel Kant and Charles Taylor, I argue that, despite being limited as a solution to both problems, Habermas’s institutional translation proviso is nonetheless preferable to available alternatives. To that extent, I maintain that it is an indispensable feature of democratic politics in pluralist societies.

There has been much written of the potential positive impact in Environmental Education (EE) and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). This thesis explores the reliance on deliberative democracy by the proponents of EE/ESD and whether or not they have justification for their beliefs. Specifically, participation and deliberation will be separated in order to identify any faults in these values that may prevent democracy – and therefore education – from addressing the problems of sustainable development and environmental concerns. Through a deconstruction of the relevant literature and a clarification of the lines of thought brought forth throughout the various arguments, it is shown that there is no good theoretical or empirical reason for advocating a deliberative democratic approach to EE/ESD as feverishly as some do. Instead, the case for an educational method and content based on the empirically observed characteristics of current liberal democracies will be made.

In light of the notions of freedom, legitimacy, equality, autonomy, plurality, publicity and action in the philosophies of Rousseau and Arendt, it can be seen that formal democracy, having ceased to be the expression of the sovereignty of the people, fell into a legitimacy crisis and has become a system which makes the people apolitical. Behind these problems, there are many reasons like the ethical deficiency of the monetarist system, deputies&rsquo / abuse of authority and tyranny of the majority. The facts in question have pushed philosophers to re-think the fundamental concepts underlying democracy and search for new conceptions of democracy. Nevertheless, it seems that no political model can succeed unless the people reach a certain level of ethical maturity. In this context, we are confronted with two models: liberal deliberative model which is criticized for giving negative rights priority over the process of public will-formation, and Habermas&rsquo / proceduralism which is based on the theory of discourse ethics. Habermasian democracy&mdash / which, contrary to majoritarianism, assumes the consent of all people as the basis of legitimacy&mdash / has goals like intersubjective understanding through rational justification and consensus in an ideal speech situation. Although it has criticizable sides, being the most appropriate account for our understanding of democracy ethics, which considers politics as a part of being human rather than a matter of governance, proceduralism can be defended with the contributions of Benhabib and Young. In the end, the point is making ethics of democracy prior to political models for re-politization of the people.