Decolonizing Deliberative Democracy: Perspectives from Below

Abstract

In this paper I provide a decolonial critique of received knowledge about deliberative democracy. The question of colonial difference has generally been overlooked in theories of democracy. These omissions challenge several key assumptions of deliberative democracy. I argue that deliberative democracy does not travel well outside Western sites and its key assumptions begin to unravel in resource extraction zones in the ‘developing’ regions of the world. The rationale for a decolonial critique of deliberative democracy is the violent conflicts over resource extraction between Indigenous communities, states and multinational corporations that are ongoing in the former colonies of Africa, Asia and Latin America. I argue that deliberative processes cannot take into account the needs of marginalized stakeholders who are defending their lands and livelihoods. Power asymmetries between key actors in the political economy can diminish the welfare of communities impacted by extraction. The paper contributes to the literature by (1) offering a critique of hegemonic models of democracy that cannot address issues of inequality and colonial difference and (2) offering possibilities to imagine counterhegemonic alternatives for a democratization of democracy from below.