Improving political deliberation-Response.

Abstract

We agree with Castree that higher-quality deliberation among representatives is indeed a key element for renewing our democracies. More and better deliberation in representative institutions might produce more publicly acceptable and sustainable policies. A deliberative citizenry can help achieve this goal. Empirical research of political systems in the United States and Europe ([ 1 ][1], [ 2 ][2]) shows that under appropriate conditions—namely, coalition settings, second chambers to check power, secrecy, low party discipline, low issue polarization, and the strong presence of moderate parties—genuine deliberation can be found in legislatures. This research also demonstrates that good deliberation is not easy to achieve in representative institutions that lack favorable conditions. Under normal political conditions in adversarial systems such as the United States and United Kingdom—namely, strong partisan competition and high issue polarization—high-quality deliberation is rare. Therefore, we need to think about reforms that would facilitate higher-quality deliberation in representative institutions. Given that institutional reforms in adversarial systems (for instance, in the direction of more consensual procedures) are rare, elite deliberation could greatly benefit from being exposed to more citizen deliberation. For this reason, we emphasized the idea that citizens could lead the way. As we explained in the context of the Irish example, citizen deliberation helped make interactions in the Dail (Irish parliament) more deliberative, especially on the highly divisive issue of abortion. Moreover, research has shown that direct deliberative exchanges between representatives and their constituents in the United States helped citizens rebuild political trust and helped representatives truly engage with citizens' policy views ([ 3 ][3]). Renewal of our democracies requires better deliberation among citizens, among politicians, and between them. 1. [↵][4]1. J. Bessette , The Mild Voice of Reason: Deliberative Democracy and American National Government (University of Chicago Press, 1994). 2. [↵][5]1. J. Steiner, 2. A. Bachtiger, 3. M. Sporndli, 4. M. Steenbergen , Deliberative Politics in Action: Analysing Parliamentary Discourse (Cambridge University Press, 2004). 3. [↵][6]1. M. A. Neblo, 2. K. M. Esterling, 3. D. M. J. Lazer , Politics with the People: Building a Directly Representative Democracy (Cambridge University Press, 2018). [1]: #ref-1 [2]: #ref-2 [3]: #ref-3 [4]: #xref-ref-1-1 View reference 1 in text [5]: #xref-ref-2-1 View reference 2 in text [6]: #xref-ref-3-1 View reference 3 in text