Abstract
This essay is a response to Cristina Lafont’s critique of deliberative minipublics. I consider the problem in these main steps: (1) The argument that such minipublics should not have any real ‘decisional-power’ and (2) that it is not democratically acceptable to rely on them as a ‘second best’ because they only engage a small portion of the population (138–139). Nothing but a ‘first best’ strategy will do in her view. (3) The challenge of achieving a ‘first best’ solution, which I have previously outlined in terms of what I call the ‘trilemma’ of democratic reform. (4) Why I believe Lafont’s solution, a ‘participatory conception of deliberative democracy’, does not actually offer a solution to the trilemma because it is insufficiently participatory (Lafont 2019: Part III). (5) My own approach to dealing with the trilemma, as outlined in my book Democracy When the People Are Thinking (Fishkin 2018), is, I will argue, both more participatory and more deliberative. I lay out an actual solution. While it is elaborate and expensive, there is no theoretical or practical impediment to realizing it, except for collective political will, except for a shared decision to move forward. The contrast between the two solutions is the focus of the last part of the essay.
Highlights
Cristina Lafont’s powerful critique of deliberative mini publics strikes at the central strategy that has energized efforts to apply deliberative democracy to real public problems.1 Every effort to make deliberative democracy practical needs to take account of her critiques
(3) The challenge of achieving a ‘first best’ solution, which I have previously outlined in terms of what I call the ‘trilemma’ of democratic reform
I will consider her argument in five main steps: (1) The argument that such minipublics should not have any real ‘decisional-power’ (15) and 2) that it is not democratically acceptable to rely on them as a ‘second best’ because they only engage a small portion of the population (138–139)
Summary
Cristina Lafont’s powerful critique of deliberative mini publics strikes at the central strategy that has energized efforts to apply deliberative democracy to real public problems.1 Every effort to make deliberative democracy practical needs to take account of her critiques. She says, I settle for the combination of deliberation and political equality (achieved through random sampling) for a deliberative microcosm and give up on the idea of having all three.
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