Public Planner – A Deliberative Authority

Beyond merely mediating between particular interests, deliberative planners are in need of a firmer agency in shaping attention to common good concerns. However, locating such agency legitimately in the context of deliberative ideals is difficult, and not well supported by theory. A key problem is the weak conceptualization of legitimate forms of power-over, regarding the deliberative planners’ agency. To address this theoretical challenge, the article employs Haugaard’s rethinking of power-over, Salet’s dialectics of public norms and performative aspirations, the “systems” turn of deliberative democracy theory, and Warren’s related work on authority.