Narrative in Political Argument: The Next Chapter in Deliberative Democracy

Abstract

The theory of deliberative democracy is an answer to a familiar democratic problem. Democracy means ‘the rule of the people,’ but the people are routinely divided about what to do, not only for reasons of interest, but also on grounds of moral principle. Where groups find a law morally objectionable, they are not easily viewed as the authors of that law, in the manner apparently required by the democratic ideal of self-governance. Deliberative democrats have argued that democracy requires citizens to seek consensus, using a familiar style of principle-based moral argument. However, critics like Iris Young object that deliberative democracy’s favoured model of reasoning is inadequate for resolving deep value conflicts. She and others have suggested that the aim of improving understanding across political differences could be achieved if our conception of legitimate democratic discourse were broadened to include a significant role for narrative. The question is whether such a revision would amount to abandoning the deliberative democratic goal of seeking reasonable resolutions of value conflict. This thesis argues that a narrative approach to deliberative democracy can realize its commitment to reasoned justification, while preserving the significance of differing perspectives and promoting mutual understanding. Chapters One and Two review and criticize the ideas of major deliberative theorists concerning the nature of agents, social circumstances, and moral reasoning. Chapters Three and Four deal with deliberative democracy’s radical critics, whose insights about a narrative-contextualist approach to reasoning are shown to be promising, despite these theorists’ excessive hostility to liberalconstitutionalist traditions. In Chapters Five and Six, a tradition-based, contextualist approach to moral reasoning is introduced and defended. Chapters Seven and Eight examine the nature, structure, and cognitive content of narrative; compare and contrast narrative with scientific theory; and address objections to the use of narrative in moral argument. Narrative is shown there to fulfil distinct purposes of communication, interpretation, and justification. Chapters Nine and Ten conclude the argument of the thesis, that deliberative democracy can be fruitfully reoriented along narrative-contextualist lines, by illustrating the role of narrative in public debate over issues such as cultural accommodation and historical justice.