ABSTRACT
We can, I believe, best explore the prospects for an effective green democracy by working with a political model whose essence is authentic communication rather than, say, preference aggregation, representation, or partisan competition. The ecological context means that the kind of communicative democracy that ensues ought to take a particular shape or shapes. This shape depends not on the set of values through reference to which democrats have always justified their projects, though such values have an important place in any contemplation of appropriate political structure. It is, more importantly, a question of some political forms being better able to enter into fruitful engagement with natural systems than others, and so more effectively cope with the ecological challenge.
