The Construction of General Public Interest: Risk, Legitimacy, and Power in a Public Hearing
The Construction of General Public Interest: Risk, Legitimacy, and Power in a Public Hearing
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一般公共利益的构建：公开听证会中的风险、合法性和权力
DOI：
10.1177/0170840608101481
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发表时间：
2009
影响因子：
5.4
通讯作者：
Cagri Topal
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Cagri Topal
现代社会晚期经济参与者的决策除了产品和服务之外还产生风险。因此，可能受到这些决定影响的各方——个人、社区和整个社会——试图影响他们。公开听证会是社会上发生这种影响的一个重要论坛。本文通过听证会的案例研究来展示公开听证会如何利用合法化实践来行使机构权力，尽管它们通常被描述为风险最小化的民主机制。公开听证会制定的是形式而非实质性的参与，创造服务于特定而非普遍利益的“公共利益”，并使用规范性或基于价值而非理性的评估。公开听证会通过展示公民参与、普遍利益和理性评价，使政府和企业机构合法化。这些过程通过构建公众形象来实现意识形态或基于图像的合法性。这种合法性是虚幻的，但对于制定国家和企业权力来说却是有效的。
The decisions of the economic actors in late modern society produce risks in addition to products and services. Thus, the parties likely to be affected by those decisions — individuals, communities, and society at large — seek to influence them. Public hearings are a key forum in society where this influence occurs. This paper uses a case study of a hearing to show how public hearings use legitimating practices to enact institutional power although they are commonly portrayed as risk-minimizing democratic mechanisms. Public hearings enact participation that is formal not substantive, create `public good' that serves particular not general interests, and use evaluation which is normative or value-based and not rational. Public hearings thus legitimate government and corporate institutions through the demonstration of citizen participation, general interest, and rational evaluation. These processes enact ideological or image-based legitimation by constructing an image of the general public. This legitimation is illusory but effective for enacting state and corporate power.