A democracia participativa e o regime internacional do meio ambiente

Abstract

The current debate about the international environmental protection regime occurring within the world-system has been operated using a movement that tends to dilute traditional paradigms of power, strategy and sovereignty. This study analyzes participatory democracy on an epistemological basis and how it can contribute to building a participatory democratic vision of environmental governance in a context of complex societies. The study was developed around four central themes: participatory democracy as a new democratic paradigm in the Habermasian procedural conception of communicative action; the new dimensions of analysis in the conception and provision of what is characterized as public goods the environment as a global public good and the interests of different international actors in conforming to this concept ; global environmental governance as an instrument capable of articulate and promote institutionalized participatory democracy, which resembles the notion of international regimes; and, finally, the effective participation of internal and external actors in the drawing up of the major UN declarations on environmental protection. The adopted methodology was qualitative in an essentially exploratory nature, trough bibliographic and documental exploration, supported on the descriptive model. It was concluded that, although the participation of civil society in discussions of preparatory documents for the conference has been extended in the recent decades, the effective participation of other actors excluding States has shown very deficient due to their low power to influence the decision-making processes around the international environmental regime