ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses M. Kettner's set of requirements to evaluate the Dutch public debate on the issue of transgenic animals. It focuses on the conditions structuring real public debates by making use of the societal diagnoses of A. Giddens and U. Beck. In modern societies institutions like the mass media, public inquiry procedures, public interest groups, and social movements, directly enable citizens to deliberate on public policy issues. The chapter suggests that at least the final evaluation of the legitimate differences can only take place within the debate, or in the public sphere as a whole. The theory of reflexive modernisation provides a good background for the conceptualisation of the way public debates are organised by stakeholders. Prior to the animal debate the Dutch Society for the Protection of Animals was a relatively non-politicised organisation, that played an official, quasi-governmental role in pursuing and proceeding against the neglect and maltreatment of pets and other animals.
