Democracy in environmental impact assessment: The politics of participation and well-being

Environmental impact assessment is a regulated mechanism for informing development decisions in Canada. Two important democratic ideals in environmental impact assessment are public engagement and human well-being. However, there has been a growing tension between expectations of democracy theory and reality of democracy in environmental impact assessment. The context studied includes the genesis, development, and values of participatory democracy, and the substantive and procedural considerations that can directly influence well-being. My communitarian version of participatory democracy provides the normative framework for an empirical investigation of public engagement through two case studies in Nova Scotia. By examining these cases, I shed light on the fundamental values of the individuals who have participated in an environmental impact assessment process and the indirect influences that the style and quality of engagement, and associated values, can have on well-being. I use two major research strategies: (1) an analysis of democracy theory, democratic decision-making, and well-being, and (2) a qualitative analysis of two case studies. Data were collected using one-to-one interviews with respondents who had participated in environmental impact assessment processes. I challenge the view that citizens are generally apathetic and the indirect influences of public engagement on well-being are inconsequential. Indeed, public engagement can have an important influence on individual and community well-being. Typically these influences on well-being resulted in response to both democratic and undemocratic procedural considerations and participant behaviour. Engagement mechanisms that fostered the development of certain human capacities and human virtues forged among participants' bonds of solidarity and aroused in them a greater sense of belonging and obligation to their political community and its institutions. By stimulating change in an array of human capacities and human virtues, public engagement in environmental impact assessment had an enduring influence on both individual and community well-being.;Keywords. democracy; decision-making; environmental impact assessment; public participation; well-being.