Deliberation: Political Aspects

Abstract

In its political signification ‘deliberation’ refers to a process of reasoning about political choices. In a deliberative process the actors are open to the facts, arguments, and proposals that come to their attention and share a willingness to learn from their colleagues and others. As originally explained by Aristotle, political deliberation concerns such choices as the selection of political leaders; the development of the laws, public policies, or regulations that govern a state; and the formation of alliances or agreements with other nations. In the ancient Greek democracies the free adult males periodically came together in an assembly to deliberate on and decide the great issues that faced the polity. Modern representative democracies, on the other hand, locate authoritative political deliberation in representative institutions, especially legislatures. After a lengthy period of neglect by social scientists through most of the twentieth century, there was a resurgence of study of deliberation in the last decades of the century. This new scholarship addresses both deliberation within governing institutions and, more extensively, deliberation among the citizens of a democracy. Although most scholars writing on the subject attest to the value of widespread public deliberations on policy issues, they disagree as to whether and how intelligent public deliberation can occur within the large nation-state.