and enable eVective environmental action and social change. For some, this
approach seems to parallel a tempering of the radical impulse in environ-
mental thinking—an impulse seen at the outset of this chapter in the con-
viction that environmental concern cannot be readily accommodated into the
conceptual mainstream. Yet a post-exuberant approach need not be equated
with moderation. In fact, environmental political theorists often argue that
resolution of environmental problems requires clear-eyed attention to their
diVerential impact on human communities based on class, gender, race, and
position within the global economy. Rather than a radicalism expressed
through arguments for a transformative, ecocentric world-view, therefore,
it is more likely to be seen in a critique of existing relations of power
and privilege, and arguments for restructuring of social, economic, and
political power.
5 Democracy and Environmental
Ideas
.........................................................................................................................................................................................
When considering democracy, environmental political thought has grappled
with a question posed most directly by Robert Goodin: ‘‘[t]o advocate
democracy is to advocate procedures, to advocate environmentalism is to
advocate substantive outcomes: what guarantee can we have that the former
procedures will yield the latter sorts of outcomes?’’ ( 1992 , 168 ). Indeed, there
are a number of recent works in environmental political theory that are
explicitly focused upon democracy; many of these challenge Goodin’s fram-
ing of this question by connecting environmental concern with a commit-
ment to more discursive or deliberative forms of democratic participation
(Smith 2003 ; Minteer and Pepperman Taylor 2002 ; Dryzek 2000 ; Sandilands
1999 ; Doherty and de Geus 1996 ; Mathews 1996 ).
There is a simple, reassuring narrative sometimes evoked about democracy
in environmental political theory. It goes like this: Once upon a time (i.e. in
the 1970 s), environmental thinking about politics was dominated by voices
such as those of Garrett Hardin, William Ophuls, and Robert Heilbroner.
These authors suggested that recognition ofbiophysical‘‘limits to growth’’
782 john m. meyer