The fundamental problem with cost-benefit reasoning on this score, however, is that it mis-represents the issue. By challenging democracy to yield utilitarian results, advocates presume the normative legitimacy of the criterion on net benefit while completely devaluing democratic results. It is as though the choice of democracy were inherently utilitarian. The possibility that decisions arrived at through democratic participation and consent could be valued in themselves independently of their economic implications is simply not recognizable from a cost-benefit perspective.