Interaction, Deliberation and Power: Legitimising discourses of interactive, deliberative and environmental governance

Abstract

The interplay of practices of environmental governance and interactive/deliberative governance forms a rising phenomenon within Public Administration. This thesis researches this interplay by focusing on the case of the Rotterdam Climate Accord. Utilising a discourse analysis methodology I explored how both environmental governance and interactive/deliberative governance discourses reciprocally legitimate each other in governance arrangements addressing climate change. Incorporating a highly warranted elaboration of the dimension of power in PA and governance, by departing from the relationship between citizens and government this thesis explicates the dynamics of power beyond the state as it takes shape in the guise of environmental or climate governance. As such this research assumes a more critical approach to phenomena of governance, yet by relying upon theoretical criteria derived from deliberative democracy provides constructive findings for the future study of governance as a performative, deliberative democratic phenomenon.