Innovating Democracy

Innovating Democracy
Author: Robert E. Goodin
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 327
Release: 2008-07-10
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0191563307

In recent years democratic theory has taken a deliberative turn. Instead of merely casting the occasional ballot, deliberative democrats want citizens to reason together. They embrace 'talk as a decision procedure'. But of course thousands or millions of people cannot realistically talk to one another all at once. When putting their theories into practice, deliberative democrats therefore tend to focus on 'mini-publics', usually of a couple dozen to a couple hundred people. The central question then is how to connect micro-deliberations in mini-publics to the political decision-making processes of the larger society. In Innovating Democracy, Robert Goodin surveys these new deliberative mechanisms, asking how they work and what we can properly expect of them. Much though they have to offer, they cannot deliver all that deliberative democrats hope. Talk, Goodin concludes, is good as discovery procedure but not as a decision procedure. His slogan is, 'First talk, then vote'. Micro-deliberative mechanisms should supplement, not supplant, representative democracy. Goodin goes on to show how to adapt our thinking about those familiar institutions to take full advantage of deliberative inputs. That involves rethinking who should get a say, how we hold people accountable, how we sequence deliberative moments and what the roles of parties and legislatures can be in that. Revisioning macro-democratic processes in light of the processes and promise of micro-deliberation, Innovating Democracy provides an integrated perspective on democratic theory and practice after the deliberative turn.

Deliberative Democracy

Deliberative Democracy
Author: Jon Elster
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 300
Release: 1998-03-28
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9780521596961

This volume assesses the strengths and weaknesses of deliberative democracy.

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.

Approaching Deliberative Democracy

Approaching Deliberative Democracy
Author: Robert J. Cavalier
Publisher: Carnegie-Mellon University Press
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2011
Genre: Deliberative democracy
ISBN: 9780887485374

A collection of articles on the theory and practice of deliberative democracy edited by Robert Cavalier.

Deliberative Democracy

Deliberative Democracy
Author: James Bohman
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 484
Release: 1997
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780262522410

The contributions in this anthology address tensions that arise between reason and politics in a democracy inspired by the ideal of achieving reasoned agreement among free and equal citizens.

Rational Choice and Democratic Deliberation

Rational Choice and Democratic Deliberation
Author: Guido Pincione
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 249
Release: 2006-07-24
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0521862698

This book offers a comprehensive and sustained critique of theories of deliberative democracy.

Deliberative Democracy

Deliberative Democracy
Author: Ian O'Flynn
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 112
Release: 2021-09-27
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1509523499

Today, deliberative democracy is the most widely discussed theory of democracy. Its proponents argue that important decisions of law and policy should ideally turn not on the force of numbers but on the force of the better argument. However, it continues to strike some as little more than wishful thinking. In this new book, Ian O’Flynn examines how the concept has developed over recent decades, the family disagreements which have emerged, and the criticisms that have been levelled at it. Grappling with the familiar charge that ordinary people lack the motivation and capacity for meaningful deliberation, O’Flynn considers the example of deliberative polls and citizens’ assemblies and critically assesses how such forums can fit within a broader democratic system. He then considers the implications of deliberative democracy for multicultural and multi-ethnic societies before turning to the prospects for the most ambitious deliberative project of all: global deliberative democracy. This book will be essential reading for students and scholars of democratic theory, as well as anyone who is curious about the prospects for more rational decision-making in an age of populist passion.

Deliberative Democracy between Theory and Practice

Deliberative Democracy between Theory and Practice
Author: Michael A. Neblo
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 233
Release: 2015-11-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 1107027675

This book offers a model to bridge the differences between political theorists and social scientists, focusing on deliberative practices.

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 State of Democratic Theory

The State of Democratic Theory
Author: Ian Shapiro
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 196
Release: 2009-01-10
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 140082589X

What should we expect from democracy, and how likely is it that democracies will live up to those expectations? In The State of Democratic Theory, Ian Shapiro offers a critical assessment of contemporary answers to these questions, lays out his distinctive alternative, and explores its implications for policy and political action. Some accounts of democracy's purposes focus on aggregating preferences; others deal with collective deliberation in search of the common good. Shapiro reveals the shortcomings of both, arguing instead that democracy should be geared toward minimizing domination throughout society. He contends that Joseph Schumpeter's classic defense of competitive democracy is a useful starting point for achieving this purpose, but that it stands in need of radical supplementation--both with respect to its operation in national political institutions and in its extension to other forms of collective association. Shapiro's unusually wide-ranging discussion also deals with the conditions that make democracy's survival more and less likely, with the challenges presented by ethnic differences and claims for group rights, and with the relations between democracy and the distribution of income and wealth. Ranging over politics, philosophy, constitutional law, economics, sociology, and psychology, this book is written in Shapiro's characteristic lucid style--a style that engages practitioners within the field while also opening up the debate to newcomers.