Abstract

The purposes of political discourse include (a) clarifying citizens' understanding of the issue, (b) helping citizens reach their best reasoned judgment as to which course of action will solve a problem, (c) increasing citizen participation in the political process, and (d) socializing the next generation into the procedures and attitudes they need to be active citizens. A responsibility of psychology within a democratic society is to provide the theory, research, and normative procedures needed to make political discourse constructive. Constructive controversy provides a theory, validated by research, that has been operationalized into a normative procedure. Constructive controversy exists when one person's ideas, information, conclusions, theories, and opinions are incompatible with those of another, and the 2 seek to reach an agreement. A political decision is reached through the following procedure. Citizens form advocacy groups and present the best case possible for the alternative course of action t...

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