Deliberative Democracy in America

Deliberative Democracy in America
Author: Ethan J. Leib
Publisher: Penn State Press
Total Pages: 188
Release: 2010-11-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780271045290

We are taught in civics class that the Constitution provides for three basic branches of government: executive, judicial, and legislative. While the President and Congress as elected by popular vote are representative, can they really reflect accurately the will and sentiment of the populace? Or do money and power dominate everyday politics to the detriment of true self-governance? Is there a way to put &"We the people&" back into government? Ethan Leib thinks there is and offers this blueprint for a fourth branch of government as a way of giving the people a voice of their own. While drawing on the rich theoretical literature about deliberative democracy, Leib concentrates on designing an institutional scheme for embedding deliberation in the practice of American democratic government. At the heart of his scheme is a process for the adjudication of issues of public policy by assemblies of randomly selected citizens convened to debate and vote on the issues, resulting in the enactment of laws subject both to judicial review and to possible veto by the executive and legislative branches. The &"popular&" branch would fulfill a purpose similar to the ballot initiative and referendum but avoid the shortcomings associated with those forms of direct democracy. Leib takes special pains to show how this new branch would be integrated with the already existing governmental and political institutions of our society, including administrative agencies and political parties, and would thus complement rather than supplant them.

Deliberative Democracy, Public Policy, and Local Government

Deliberative Democracy, Public Policy, and Local Government
Author: Joanna Podgórska-Rykała
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 221
Release: 2024-03-05
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1003857361

This book examines deliberative democracy and its practical forms and applications in local government public policy. Author Joanna Podgórska-Rykała explores the topic of democracy, leaning in particular on the origins of its representative variant. Analyzing the elite dimension of the concept of representation, she considers what historical and political events have influenced the contemporary shape of democracy and its understanding. How were democratic ideals shaped, and why are we currently experiencing a democratic recession? Why is the debate that should be integral to the functioning of collegiate bodies disappearing? Why aren't decisions based on evidence, and why don't decision-makers take into account expert opinions and stakeholder positions? Drawing on empirical research - interviews with city-level decision-makers - the author considers whether and how deliberative innovation can support the renewal of decision-making in representative institutions. Deliberative Democracy, Public Policy, and Local Government will be of enormous interest to doctoral students and researchers as well as to practitioners of local government administration, civic leaders, representatives of nongovernmental organizations, and people interested in public affairs. It can also be used as an important supplement in courses on public administration, political science, international relations, law, economics, and related studies at both the undergraduate and the graduate level.

The Oxford Handbook of Deliberative Democracy

The Oxford Handbook of Deliberative Democracy
Author: André Bächtiger
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 1054
Release: 2018-08-23
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0191064572

Deliberative democracy has been one of the main games in contemporary political theory for two decades, growing enormously in size and importance in political science and many other disciplines. The Oxford Handbook of Deliberative Democracy takes stock of deliberative democracy as a research field, in philosophy, in various research programmes in the social sciences and law, and in political practice around the globe. It provides a concise history of deliberative ideals in political thought and discusses their philosophical origins. The Handbook locates deliberation in political systems with different spaces, publics, and venues, including parliaments, courts, governance networks, protests, mini-publics, old and new media, and everyday talk. It engages with practical applications, mapping deliberation as a reform movement and as a device for conflict resolution, documenting the practice and study of deliberative democracy around the world and in global governance.

Innovative Citizen Participation and New Democratic Institutions Catching the Deliberative Wave

Innovative Citizen Participation and New Democratic Institutions Catching the Deliberative Wave
Author: OECD
Publisher: OECD Publishing
Total Pages: 198
Release: 2020-06-10
Genre:
ISBN: 9264725903

Public authorities from all levels of government increasingly turn to Citizens' Assemblies, Juries, Panels and other representative deliberative processes to tackle complex policy problems ranging from climate change to infrastructure investment decisions. They convene groups of people representing a wide cross-section of society for at least one full day – and often much longer – to learn, deliberate, and develop collective recommendations that consider the complexities and compromises required for solving multifaceted public issues.

Direct Deliberative Democracy

Direct Deliberative Democracy
Author: Crittenden Jack Crittenden
Publisher: Black Rose Books Ltd.
Total Pages: 190
Release: 2019-10-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1551646730

As American politics becomes ever more dominated by powerful vested interests, positive change seems permanently stymied. Left out in the cold by the political process, citizens are frustrated and despairing. How can we take back our democracy from the grip of oligarchy and bring power to the people? In Direct Deliberative Democracy, Jack Crittenden and Debra Campbell offer up a better way for government to reflect citizens' interests. It begins with a startlingly basic question: "e;Why don't we the people govern?"e; In this provocative book, the authors mount a powerful case that the time has come for more direct democracy in the United States, showing that the circumstances that made the Constitutional framers' arguments so convincing more than two hundred years ago have changed dramatically-and that our democracy needs to change with them. With money, lobbyists, and corporations now dominating local, state, and national elections, the authors argue that now is the time for citizens to take control of their government by deliberating together to make public policies and laws directly. At the heart of their approach is a proposal for a new system of "e;legislative juries,"e; in which the jury system would be used as a model for selecting citizens to create ballot initiatives. This would enable citizens to level the playing field, bring little-heard voices into the political arena, and begin the process of transforming our democracy into one that works for, not against, its citizens.

Democracy as Public Deliberation

Democracy as Public Deliberation
Author: Maurizio Passerin d'Entrèves
Publisher: Transaction Publishers
Total Pages: 240
Release:
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1412821517

One of the most remarkable developments in the last twenty years has been the revival of the idea of deliberative democracy. Set against aggregative models of democracy derived from economics, such as the theory of rational choice, the idea of deliberative democracy, or decision-making based on public deliberations among free and equal citizens, represents a highly significant development in democratic theory. Exploring this development, this book provides a fresh and original perspective on a theme at the center of current debates in democratic theory and practice. The essays collected in this volume offer a series of powerful arguments in support of the view that fair and equal treatment of groups is best defended on the basis of a theory of public deliberation. Such a theory has both a normative and institutional dimension. It provides a framework for the normative justification of state policies toward socially or culturally disadvantaged groups, and suggests several institutional mechanisms, such as deliberative forums and citizen's juries, where the voices of disadvantaged groups can be articulated under fair conditions and become effective in shaping' public policy. Democracy as Public Deliberation reminds us that the issue of democracy is not simply one of top-down management and control, but bottom-up considerations that are often located in ethnic, religious and linguistic groups. The great virtue of this volume is to identify statist systems that claim to be democratic, but only in terms of the dominant culture. Democracy as Public Deliberation indicates that democracy often comes in small packages--and in that very fact, it tests the actual ambitions and standards of the macro-state. This is an especially powerful volume for those interested in the strengths and weaknesses of third world structures. Maurizio Passerin d'Entrves is a senior lecturer in political theory at the University of Manchester. He is the author of Modernity, Justice and Community (1990) and of The Political Philosophy of Hannah Arendt (1994). He is the co-editor of Habermas and the Unfinished Project of Modernity (1996) and of Public and Private: Legal, Political and Philosophical Perspectives (2000). He is also the editor of Democracy as Public Deliberation: New Perspectives (2002).

Talking in the Halls: Deliberative Democracy, Local Institutions, and School Board Governance

Talking in the Halls: Deliberative Democracy, Local Institutions, and School Board Governance
Author: Jonathan Collins
Publisher:
Total Pages: 173
Release: 2017
Genre:
ISBN:

Research Question and Framework: Does public engagement in the democratic process at the local level actually matter? Can we conceptualize public engagement beyond voting in elections? Furthermore, how does non-electoral public engagement interact with the racial and ethnic politics already in existence in local communities? This study looks to develop and empirically test a theory of local government based on the extent to which local public officials engage in public deliberation with residents of municipalities. In building this framework, the project employs the deliberative democracy theoretical framework. This study also appends to the framework a typology of how public deliberation should function under varying racial conditions in cities, and I empirically test these theoretical concepts by examining the school board politics of the school districts in Los Angeles County. Methods: This dissertation project explores the question of interest through a mixture of quantitative and qualitative analysis. Through surveying superintendents across Los Angeles County, I develop the first localized comparative index scale of deliberative democracy - the Deliberative Democracy Index Scale (DDIS). I also measure the policy priorities of the district superintendents as well as collect open-ended responses from the superintendents regarding public participation at school board meetings. Furthermore, this study measures the public's evaluations of their local government using a separate public opinion survey of Los Angeles County residents. Then, this project concludes with a qualitative analysis of how institutional leadership plays a role the extent to which districts utilize deliberative democracy. Findings: Districts with greater minority political empowerment and lower levels of racial conflict produce higher DDIS scores. Superintendents of districts with higher DDIS scores are more likely to prioritize issues important to the public as a whole. Residents of districts with higher DDIS scores are more likely harbor positive evaluations of their local government. Districts with higher DDIS scores tend to utilize more creative means to encourage public participation in school board meetings. Conclusion: A quantitative measure of deliberative democracy carries significant explanatory power. An institution's level of commitment to deliberative democracy influences how administrators think about policy. That institutional commitment also shapes the public's perceptions of local government performance. The commitment to deliberative democracy largely begins with the norms and conditions established by the governing body.

Deliberative Systems

Deliberative Systems
Author: John Parkinson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 205
Release: 2012-07-05
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1107025397

A major new statement of deliberative theory that shows how states, even transnational systems, can be deliberatively democratic.

The Law of Deliberative Democracy

The Law of Deliberative Democracy
Author: Ron Levy
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 271
Release: 2016-11-03
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1134502060

Laws have colonised most of the corners of political practice, and now substantially determine the process and even the product of democracy. Yet analysis of these laws of politics has been hobbled by a limited set of theories about politics. Largely absent is the perspective of deliberative democracy – a rising theme in political studies that seeks a more rational, cooperative, informed, and truly democratic politics. Legal and political scholarship often view each other in reductive terms. This book breaks through such caricatures to provide the first full-length examination of whether and how the law of politics can match deliberative democratic ideals. Essential reading for those interested in either law or politics, the book presents a challenging critique of laws governing electoral politics in the English-speaking world. Judges often act as spoilers, vetoing or naively reshaping schemes meant to enhance deliberation. This pattern testifies to deliberation’s weak penetration into legal consciousness. It is also a fault of deliberative democracy scholarship itself, which says little about how deliberation connects with the actual practice of law. Superficially, the law of politics and deliberative democracy appear starkly incompatible. Yet, after laying out this critique, The Law of Deliberative Democracy considers prospects for reform. The book contends that the conflict between law and public deliberation is not inevitable: it results from judicial and legislative choices. An extended, original analysis demonstrates how lawyers and deliberativists can engage with each other to bridge their two solitudes.