Green political thoughtpart) has contributed to ecological problems, such as mass consumerism or
public resistance to measures aimed at reducing car use. If participatory
democracy takes preferences as given and simply provides a more effective
way of aggregating them, then governments may belesslikely to introduce
progressive environmental policies. Instead, greens want to alter human
preferences because the radical transformation to a sustainable society will
be easier to achieve if people can be persuaded by the force of argument
that it is right for them to change their beliefs, attitudes and behaviour,
rather than being told todoso(Barry1999a: 228).
To return to the discussion at the end of theprevious section:Eckersley
argues that ecological ends justify democratic means because moral prior-
ity should be given to nurturing the autonomy of members of the human
and non-human community. Participatory democracy is one of the condi-
tions necessary to construct a society in which the conditions for human
autonomy prevail. Thus the connection between ecology and democracy is
no longer merely contingent. Moreover, authoritarianism is ‘ruled out at
thelevel of green principle’ because it ‘fundamentally infringes the rights
of humans to choose their own destiny’ (Eckersley 1996 : 223).
However, an alternative green riposte to Eckersley might justify partic-
ipatory democracy on the different grounds that its communicative and
deliberative procedures provide the bestmeansof changing individual pref-
erences and facilitating the ecological citizenship necessary for the good
society. Hence participatory democracy is a core green principle because it
contributes to thecommon good,not because moral priority should reside
with individual autonomy.
Whichever justification is accepted, how practical is this vision of a partic-
ipatory democratic polity? It is significant that green theorists and activists
have become increasingly reconciled to the continued existence of the (albeit
reformed) representative institutions of liberal democracy (see Doherty and
deGeus 1996 ). Even where a powerful case is made for a distinctive ‘ecolog-
ical democracy’, it is presented as a model of a ‘post-liberal democracy, not
an anti-liberal democracy’, which would retain many elements of the liberal
democratic state (Eckersley 2004a: 138). But many greens now see delibera-
tive democratic procedures assupplementing,rather than replacing, reformed
liberal democratic institutions. Thus the provision of more opportunities for
greater citizen participation could operate alongside attempts to encourage
greater ‘institutionalised self-criticism’ and ‘reflexiveness’ in existing insti-
tutions by making them more open, transparent and accountable (Paehlke
1989 ;Beck 1992 ;Barry1999a). The ascendancy of the sustainable develop-
ment paradigm has been the catalyst for widespread democratic institu-
tional innovation along these lines during the last decade, including round-
tables, citizen juries and extended referenda (see Chapter11). It is a moot
point whether this ‘downgrading’ of participatory democracy undermines
the case for democracy as a core green principle. However, the arguments
made here could be used to reformulate a green principle of democracy,