Jensen-Lee Catherine
School of Social Science and Policy, University of New South Wales, NSW, Australia.
J Environ Manage. 2009 Apr;90(4):1613-21. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2008.05.016. Epub 2008 Sep 18.
This paper deals with the Commission of Inquiry (COI) established by the NSW Department of Planning to examine Orica's proposal to build a Geomelt plant at its Botany site to destroy its stockpile of Hexachlorobenzene. The Inquiry is analysed in light of the literature on democracy/democratisation. The paper argues that the standard operating procedures of the Inquiry ensured that all stakeholders were treated equally. However, this equality was found to be purely formal, and drawing on the critique of formal equality dating back to Aristotle, it is argued that treating unequals equally results in the circumvention of deliberative democratic ideals by perpetuating entrenched structural inequalities while nonetheless giving the superficial appearance of fair play.
本文探讨了新南威尔士州规划部设立的调查委员会，该委员会旨在审查澳瑞凯公司在其博特尼工厂建造一座热解工厂以销毁其六氯苯库存的提议。本文根据关于民主/民主化的文献对该调查进行了分析。文章认为，调查的标准操作程序确保了所有利益相关者都得到平等对待。然而，这种平等被发现仅仅是形式上的，借鉴可追溯至亚里士多德的对形式平等的批判观点，文章认为，平等对待不平等者会导致对审议民主理想的规避，因为它使根深蒂固的结构性不平等永久化，同时却给人以公平竞争的表面假象。
