The Construction of General Public Interest: Risk, Legitimacy, and Power in a Public Hearing
- 1 February 2009
- journal article
- research article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Organization Studies
- Vol. 30 (2-3), 277-300
- https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840608101481
Abstract
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.Keywords
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