Deliberative engagement: the forum in the system

Abstract

Recent decades have seen an explosion of innovative forms of public engagement on many kinds of issues in many countries (even a few transnational experiments), and nowhere is this more true than on questions concerning the environment and the risks of new technologies. Here, I will examine this pattern of innovation through a deliberative lens in order to take stock of both successes and failures. At first glance, it might seem that success comes mainly in the form of high-quality deliberation in particular forums; failure comes mostly in the frequent failure of those forums to have much impact in larger processes (though such failure is not universal; see Goodin and Dryzek 2006 for a compendium of success stories). Here though, I will take a somewhat different approach grounded in a system view of deliberative democracy, in which the core questions concern the deliberative qualities of larger-scale systems of governance, to which particular forums might contribute. I will develop some ideas about the place of forums within larger systems. The core claim of deliberative democracy is that a collective decision is legitimate to the extent those affected by it have the right, capacity, and opportunity to participate in consequential deliberation about the content of that decision. Deliberation for its part is a particular kind of communication that emphasizes mutual understanding rather than the pursuit of strategic advantage, the justification of positions taken in terms that are something more than material self-interest, attempts to reach those who do not share the frame of reference of the speaker, and careful listening. Where to look for deliberative engagement?