Models of Justice in the Environmental Debate - Statistical Data Included

Journal of Social Issues, Fall, 2000 by Susan Clayton

Procedural Issues

Procedural justice places the focus on the fairness of the process by which goods are allocated and decisions made and particularly emphasizes the opportunity for all interested parties to participate in the decision process (Lind & Tyler, 1988). A common complaint from all parties is that environmental regulations are developed unfairly, without giving opposing sides the opportunity to participate. The environmental movement has specific procedural criticisms. One is that the rules that are on the books are not being enforced. Another is that big companies exert disproportionate influence on policymaking. A third procedural criticism relates to the idea of "environmental justice" and charges that various involved parties, usually those without much social power, have been excluded from participation in decisions about environmental matters that will affect them. Anti-environmental arguments also include procedural criticisms, generally that environmental policies are formulated by elitists and exclude the v oices of the ordinary citizen.

Rights

Many environmental conflicts are framed in terms of rights. Rural landowners, along with timber and mining companies, have been filing lawsuits based on the idea that their "property rights" have been violated by environmental restrictions on the ways in which private property can be used. Environmental organizations have also focused on rights in an attempt to expand the concept, for example, by establishing environmental protection as a basic human right (Parker, 1991) or by allocating rights to entities that normally might not be considered: future generations, for example, or nonhuman entities (animals, species, ecosystems).

Responsibility

A last way of thinking about environmental justice invokes responsibility, which Schwartz (1975) has described as implicated in "the justice of need." Individuals are admonished to recognize the obligation to care for someone or something else. This argument is often seen in the environmental literature and particularly in the writings of Wendell Berry (1981). Berry takes seriously the idea that humans are meant to be stewards over the earth and argues that this means taking care of natural resources rather than taking them for granted. Similarly, the preface to the Sierra Club handbook for environment activists states that "each person must become ecologically responsible" (Mitchell & Stallings, 1970, p. 12). The appeal to responsibility can also be seen on the other side when environmental policies are criticized for an inattention to, or lack of concern over, the cost to people and communities whose jobs and ways of life are threatened.

Evaluating the Models

My research and that of others has addressed the question of what justice principles are preferred in resolving environmental conflicts. With some exceptions, unsurprising given the differences in domain as well as subject pool, we have found similar results. The highest ratings are given to specifically environmental concerns, like the rights of nature and concerns for future generations. Procedural justice and societal concerns like managing natural resources for the public good and the rights of the public to environmental resources also receive high ratings. Distributive principles like need and equity are rated lowest, with an economic model in which people pay for what they use consistently receiving among the lowest ratings of all (Clayton, 1996; McCreddin, Syme, Nancarrow, & George, 1997; Syme & Fenton, 1993; Syme & Nancarrow, 1992).