Putting Democratic Theory and Principles of Justice in the Right Place: Ethical Pluralism in Collaborative and Participatory Governance

ABSTRACT

Participatory and collaborative governance (P&CG) is widely celebrated as an institutional vehicle for democratizing public decision‐making by inviting affected stakeholders into inclusive and deliberative policy processes. This essay argues that underlying appeals to democratic legitimacy in P&CG are tacit commitments to specific (and often ideologically bounded) conceptions of justice. Democracy, far from being normatively univocal, encompasses competing justice principles that yield divergent and sometimes incompatible design imperatives. In response, this essay calls for a shift from vague democratic invocations to a more precise theorization of justice as the operative normative currency in P&CG. To this end, the essay outlines an analytical framework that maps three core dimensions of governance design (input, process, and output) onto corresponding domains of justice: representational, procedural, and distributive. Systematically unpacking the plural and conflicting ethical principles within each domain shows how different principles of justice produce distinct governance dilemmas and trade‐offs.