Deliberative Democratic Theory Research Articles

Being a master of metaphors

Being a master of metaphors

Deliberative democracy and the digital public sphere: Asymmetrical fragmentation as a political not a technological problem

Deliberative democracy and the digital public sphere: Asymmetrical fragmentation as a political not a technological problem

Epistemic Norms for Public Political Arguments

The aim of the article is to develop precise epistemic rules for good public political arguments, by which political measures in the broad sense are justified. By means of a theory of deliberative democracy, it is substantiated that the justification of a political measure consists in showing argumentatively that this measure most promotes the common good or is morally optimal. It is then discussed which argumentation-theoretical approaches are suitable for providing epistemically sound rules for arguments for such theses and for the associated premises, rules whose compliance implies the truth or acceptability of the thesis. Finally, on the basis of the most suitable approach, namely the epistemological one, such systems of rules for the required types of arguments are presented that fulfil the conditions mentioned.

Mobile Democracy: Changing Conditions for Young Danes’ Democratic Information and Participation

The article focuses on mobile democracy in connection to the conditional foundations for young Danes’ democratic agency in a digital society. It investigates questions of democratic transformation through a conceptual and empirical triangulation of mobile democracy as a framework for analyzing these conditions. Conceptually, the article draws on research on youth and mobile technologies and on theories of mobility, deliberative democracy, and democratic conversation. Empirically, the article draws on 16 in-depth interviews with 16–24-year-old Danes conducted in 2021. This dataset is supported by findings from a representative survey (2017) and publicly available statistics and surveys. The article analyses three intersecting conditions that frame the concept of mobile democracy through an analysis of young citizens’ democratic participation: 1. Mobile technologies—democratic mobility occurs across the availability of technological mobile platforms and online services. The ‘always on’ status is defining for young citizens’ democratic agency. 2. Mobile information and social media—fragmented publics are increasingly missing societal reference points and ideological coherence, and young people are challenged in their attempt to establish coherent meaningfulness from the fluctuating information stream. 3. Mobile engagement and participation—information mobility affects perceptions of what information, citizenship and democracy are, and how this translates into actualizations of democratic participation.

Can Deliberative Participatory Fora Cure Representation Gaps in France and Germany?

The French and the German national parliaments are dominated by highly educated, older, and mostly male politicians. There are growing calls for a more balanced political representation of different social groups. This paper seeks to inform this debate by conceptualizing and measuring representation gaps for women, people of immigrant origin, the working class, and younger age groups in France and Germany and by assessing the potential of deliberative participatory fora to ameliorate underrepresentation. Based on theories of deliberative and participatory democracy, it suggests three criteria these fora must fulfill to potentially balance underrepresentation (descriptive representation in composition, deliberative quality, and coupling to politics) and explores them empirically in four recent cases of deliberative participatory fora: the Grand Débat National and the Convention Citoyenne pour le Climat in France and the Bürgerrat Deutschlands Rolle in der Welt and the Bürgerrat Klima in Germany. We show that significant representation gaps exist for all groups studied. They have been narrowing for women and people of immigrant origin and remain most pronounced for class. Regarding institutional features, our cases fare relatively well in terms of balanced composition and deliberative quality, but the potential to balance representation gaps is seriously limited by a lack of coupling to the political system.

Effect of Citizen Participation on the Sustainability of Rural Development Projects: A Case of Nakuru County, Kenya

Citizen participation has been considered crucial in the efforts to attain project sustainability in government development projects. Practicing poor development practices and failure to prioritize and listen to inputs from beneficiaries could lead to a mismatch of needs and undesirable project outcomes. It is on this basis that the research aimed to explore the effect of citizen participation on the sustainability of rural development projects in Nakuru County Kenya. The objectives of the research were to examine the effects of interactive websites on the sustainability of rural development projects in Nakuru County and to examine the effects of focus groups on the sustainability of rural development projects in Nakuru County. The research was guided by Deliberative Democracy Theory and Social Action Theory. The research utilized descriptive research design and random sampling procedures to acquire 364 respondents from the possible target population of 4,089 people. The research further employed closed and open-ended questionnaires, interview schedules and focus group discussions to collect primary data. Secondary data was obtained from various publications. The study analyzed quantitative data from closed ended questions by editing, sorting and coding them into SPSS 25 for descriptive and inferential statistics. Qualitative data was categorized into narratives, discourses and conversations alongside research variables. Quantitative data was presented using means, standard deviations, charts, tables and graphs. Qualitative data was presented using various themes in accordance with the study variables. To ensure ethical guidelines were followed, the project cultivated confidence among the participants by promising them anonymity and confidentiality of their answers. With a beta value of 0.267 and a critical value of 0.000, the research found that interactive websites significantly and positively affect the long-term viability of rural development initiatives in Nakuru County. Focus groups were shown to have a favorable, statistically significant impact on project sustainability (beta = 0.186, p = 0.020).

Guest Editors’ Introduction: The Challenges and Prospects of Deliberative Democracy for Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility

This introduction argues that the use of the concept of deliberative democracy in corporate social responsibility (CSR) research needs to be theoretically extended. We review three developments that have recently occurred in deliberative democracy theory within political science and philosophy: 1) the conceptualization of deliberative systems (macro level), 2) the considerations of mini-publics (micro level), and 3) the role of online deliberation. We discuss the challenges and prospects that incorporating these three developments into future CSR-related research creates. We thereby also introduce the articles in this special issue and show how they connect to each of the three developments. On the basis of this discussion, we outline the contours for a more general program of distributed deliberative CSR that enables CSR scholars to incorporate an updated understanding of deliberative democracy theory into their future work.

Habermas Theory of Deliberative Democracy as a Contribution to the Legitimacy of Judge Performance in Climate Change Cases - Urgenda v. The Netherlands

Habermas Theory of Deliberative Democracy as a Contribution to the Legitimacy of Judge Performance in Climate Change Cases - Urgenda v. The Netherlands

The Private Sphere in Citizenship Education for Deliberative Democracy: The Liberal and Feminist Arguments against Public-Private Dualism

One of the challenges in substantiating deliberative democracy as a normative theory is the educational challenge of how to cultivate civic virtue, especially mutual respect and civility, in children. The cultivation of civic virtue is not limited to school education, but is also an activity related to family education. However, liberal theorists who advocate the theory of deliberative democracy, based on the dualism of public and private, have limited their discussions to the issue of civic development in the field of public education. This article proposes to understand and compare the many competing theories on public-private dualism, particularly in liberal and feminist spaces. Beginning with an analysis of the work of liberal theorists such as David Archard as well as Harry Brighouse and Adam Swift, and moving on to that of feminist theorists such as Susan Okin, this article examines competing theories on education in school and in the family, to whom the responsibility of education belongs, and where feminist and liberal thought enlighten these debates. This article will clarify the theoretical tendencies and principles of liberal arguments aimed at overcoming the public-private dualism in education, and present a strategy for overcoming the challenges that this theory encompasses by seeking reference points in feminist thought, especially with attention to conception of relational autonomy.

Public Planner – A Deliberative Authority

Beyond merely mediating between particular interests, deliberative planners are in need of a firmer agency in shaping attention to common good concerns. However, locating such agency legitimately in the context of deliberative ideals is difficult, and not well supported by theory. A key problem is the weak conceptualization of legitimate forms of power-over, regarding the deliberative planners’ agency. To address this theoretical challenge, the article employs Haugaard’s rethinking of power-over, Salet’s dialectics of public norms and performative aspirations, the “systems” turn of deliberative democracy theory, and Warren’s related work on authority.

제임스 피시킨의 숙의민주주의 이론의 보완적 시도

James S. Fishkin is one of the major theorists who have intensively studied on the problem of deliberation from the beginning of the theory of deliberative democracy. Theory of citizen-led deliberative democracy could be understood as the latest type of democracy in his typology of democracy. But, his theory of deliberative democracy involves some internal limitations. For example, the analyses of both the role of political representation in the history of Western democracies and changes in its character are not sufficiently reflected in Fishkin’s theory of democracy. Especially, the connection from elite deliberation to civic-led deliberation does not seem to be smooth. From this viewpoint, this study aims to complement Fishkin’s theory of deliberative democracy by examining representation, deliberation, and political equality suggested by Edmund Burke and John Stuart Mill. This attempt is expected to contribute to strengthen the historical, empirical, and theoretical foundations on the function of representation and the main agents of deliberation which are needed for the elaboration of Fishkin's theory of deliberative democracy.

Democracy Making melalui Musyawarah Desa di Desa Bendungan Kecamatan Kaliwiro Wonosobo

Democracy making through village deliberation is a deliberative theory of democracy to control and aggregation. Explorative Qualitative Research is used to explore phenomena and explore concepts related to making democracy in Bendungan Village. The data is analyzed by phenomena that occur in people's lives. Data collection was done by observation, documentation and interviews. The results of the study show that democracy making in Bendungan Village is carried out through village deliberations which are held twice a year which is the result of democracy making hamlet deliberations and non-formal deliberations such as Friday night tahlilan events, recitation and patrols. In these non-formal deliberations, political spaces are opened to discuss various kinds of community interests in order to become a means of control and aggregation. With strong deliberation at Friday night such as tahlilan events, women's recitations, night patrols, community service, and posyandu (Integrated Healthcare Center) which are carried out routinely, in addition to controlling power and aggregation, genuine people's aspirations can emerge that are autonomous and not based on mobilization based on community modalities

Nahdlatul Ulama’s Fox Elite Fox Dei in Contemporary Indonesia: An Aborted Baby of Deliberative Democracy?

As a major mass Islamic organization, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) has been influential both in culture and politics in Indonesia. In consonance with the decline of democratic politics across the globe, NU internal organization experiences the practice of deliberative democracy with elite deliberation or fox elite fox Dei as its procedure of electing its top leader/Spiritual Leader or Rais Am. Two practices were done at the two NU National Congresses (Muktamar) in 1984 and 2015. This procedure is called Ahlul Hall Wal Aqd (AHWA), as one of the legacies of Muslim civilization. The paper makes an account of this elite deliberation to explore how effective the practice was in developing better practices of democracy. The research is qualitative, along with the perspective of the theory of deliberative democracy. It is our result that the practice of fox elite fox Dei has not been satisfactory in terms of some defects in implementing the rule of the game. NU’s culture of deliberation under the methods of halaqah and Bah-tsul Masaail has been promising, but NU’s elites have not been prepared to harvest it to improve the application of the AHWA procedure.

Governing Climate-Related Systemic Risks in the Murray-Darling Basin in Australia

Mass fish kills and widespread drought in Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) have demonstrated the importance of leaving enough water in rivers for river ecosystems, a challenge that is set to intensify under climate change. Water governance must grapple with these ‘systemic’ climate risks and prepare communities for the wide-ranging and significant changes that will occur. But addressing climate risks will require governments and water regulators to move beyond existing practices and take into account non-stationarity as well as stochastic and non-linear changes in the future climate. Governance systems will need to be structured to engage more directly and intensively with the many perspectives on how much water can be consumed now and in the future. This article evaluates the legal content of the governance regime for climate risks in the MDB, drawing conclusions on who, or what, bears the risk of climate change. It will then use theories of risk governance and deliberative democracy to demonstrate how the systematic adoption of a deliberative approach through statutory evaluation and review processes could improve the MDB regime’s problem-solving capabilities, as well as its ability to reduce polarisation in a hotter, drier climate.

Penguatan Dewan Perwakilan Daerah Terkait Fungsi Legislasi dalam Perspektif Demokrasi Deliberatif

The Regional Representative Council is one of the people's representative institutions in Indonesia. The Regional Representative Council is a regional representative who is elected through general elections. However, in the Indonesian constitution, the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia, the position of the Regional Representatives Council is weaker than the House of Representatives. This study aims to emphasize the urgency as well as future arrangements for strengthening the functions of the Regional Representatives Council. The legal issue in this study is the legal vacuum in regulating the legislative functions of the Regional Representatives Council in the perspective of deliberative democracy. This research is a normative legal research using a conceptual approach and legislation. The legal materials used are primary legal materials such as the Constitutions of Indonesia, the Netherlands, America, and Germany. Secondary legal materials include all results of studies and research on people's representative institutions, and non-legal materials are legal dictionaries. The results of the study confirm that the urgency of strengthening the legislative function of the Regional Representatives Council is needed, especially in relation to the theory of deliberative democracy. In addition, in the future it is necessary to amend the constitution to strengthen the position of the RegionalRepresentative Council.

Can Sunlight Disperse Mistrust? A Meta-Analysis of the Effect of Transparency on Citizens’ Trust in Government

AbstractTransparency has often been hailed as a golden tool to bolster citizens’ trust in government and improve public governance. However, there is a considerable disparity in theoretical reasoning and empirical findings. Through a meta-analysis of 49 studies with 436 effect sizes, this study provides novel perspectives for understanding the effect of transparency on citizens’ trust in government. To test these mechanisms, we draw on various social science theories such as agency theory, deliberative democracy theory, procedural justice theory, a disappointment effect view, and a misinformation/information overload view. The meta-analysis indicates that the overall effect of transparency on trust is positive and significant, with an average effect size being 0.13 points. The meta-regression results further show that the impact of transparency on trust is negatively moderated by computer-mediated transparency and decision-making transparency, and it varies in a non-linear pattern with the level and the color of transparency. The findings from this article advance the theoretical development of the contextual conditions under which transparency may or may not lead to more trust in government. They also suggest helpful strategies for governments to foster a trusting relationship with their citizens.

Algorithmic News Diversity and Democratic Theory: Adding Agonism to the Mix

The role news recommenders can play in stimulating news diversity is receiving increasing amounts of attention. Democratic theory plays an important role in this debate because it helps explain why news diversity is important and which kinds of news diversity should be pursued. In this article, I observe that the current literature on news recommenders and news diversity largely draws on a narrow set of theories of liberal and deliberative democracy. Another strand of democratic theory often referred to as ‘agonism’ is often ignored. This, I argue, is a mistake. Liberal and deliberative theories of democracy focus on the question of how political disagreements and conflicts can be resolved in a rational and legitimate manner. Agonism, to the contrary, stresses the ineradicability of conflict and the need to make conflict productive. This difference in thinking about the purpose of democratic politics can also lead to new ways of thinking about the value of news diversity and role algorithmic news recommenders should play in promoting it. The overall aim of the article is (re)introduce agonistic theory to the news recommender context and to argue that agonism deserves more serious attention.

Deepfakes and Democracy (Theory): How Synthetic Audio-Visual Media for Disinformation and Hate Speech Threaten Core Democratic Functions

Observers fear that deepfakes will shake the very foundations of democracy. Notwithstanding, in-depth scholarly analyses of deepfakes’ political impact are rare, and do not consider theories of democracy. This contribution helps close this research gap, drawing on Warren’s problem-oriented democracy theory, as well as theories of deliberative democracy and contributions on the role of trust in democracies. I identify three core functions of democratic systems and their normative foundations, namely empowered inclusion, collective agenda and will formation (supported by deliberation), and collective decision-making. Based on a literature and media analysis, I systematize different types of deepfakes serving either disinformation or hate speech and outline how they weaken core democratic functions and norms: Deepfakes impede citizens’ empowered inclusion in debates and decisions that affect them, e.g. by hampering efforts to hold political representatives accountable or further marginalizing certain societal groups such as women or ethnic minorities. Deepfakes also undermine collective agenda and will formation by threatening the epistemic quality of deliberation as well as citizens’ mutual empathy and respect. This culminates in a decreased legitimacy of collective decisions taken, which is additionally threatened by pervasive (but mostly speculative) fears of deepfake election manipulation. My analysis has implications for (future) governance efforts addressing deepfakes. Such efforts are increasing, e.g. on the part of social media platforms, but also (supra-)national regulatory bodies.

Transformation of Markers of the Deliberative Democracy Theory in Modern Political Science

The article studies the features of the transformation of markers of the theory of deliberative democracy in modern political science. It has been established that a feature of this model of democracy is the possibility of its definition as a process and form of politics aimed at transforming the individual interests of political subjects by organizing a rational discussion and reaching consensus on the problems that determine the subject field of political decisions. It is substantiated that the initial model of the theory of deliberative democracy by J. Bessett is based on the concept of institutionalized order, norms of public opinion and consensus, which are the source of the organization of the process of deliberation in a democratic political process. As one of the effective ways of making political decisions, deliberative democracy in the concept of J. Bessette functionally relies on discussion and discourse that form a space for competition of opinions and beliefs and public opinion in the status of resource support for the political course. In J. Bessette’s model of deliberative democracy, the status of the subject of discussion and discourse is assigned to politicians and experts and did not provide for the acquisition of such a status by all citizens. It has been proved that modern versions of the theory of deliberative democracy, built around the idea of deliberation occurring with the participation of political institutions, civil society institutions and citizens, pay special attention to such markers as procedures, forms and results of deliberation. Meaning discussion, dialogue and discourse as forms of deliberation, delibe-rative democracy is modelled as a forum in which reasoning, ideas, opinions, preferences are transformed in the process of public discussion and approach rationality. According to the ideal model of deliberative democracy, political discussion (discourse, dialogue) should be oriented towards the development of a justified rational agreement on social norms. Only the result of a discussion in the form of consensus, reached in real actual political discourse, makes the social norm justified, substantiated and true. Achieving consensus in the deliberative model of democracy acts as a strategic skill based on intellectual and psychological techniques and technologies, the admissibility of which is derived from the procedures of the public political process and the virtues of political subjects. One such technique is the listening technique. It is substantiated that discussions about the relationship between deliberation and legitimacy, which is reflected in the procedural principles of democracy (interaction and publicity; accountability; collective mind), have become an important direction in the transformation of markers of deliberative democracy. Democratic practices of relying on a deliberative model of legitimacy should take into account the vulnerability of political behaviour (participation, activity) to quasi-deliberative forms of organizing discussion and the conditional possibility of attaining consensus on the common good. Its search, not its achievement, is a resource of democracy that maintains interest and ensures inclusion in public problems that can be solved by means of politics.

Review Essay: Deepening Deliberative Democracy – Experimentation vs. Naturalization

Hélène Landemore and Ana Tanasoca have recently proposed two different approaches to deepening the deliberative dimension of democracy. In Open Democracy (2020), Landemore introduces a novel paradigm of democracy—open democracy—which grants ordinary citizens access to an actual exercise of political power through innovative forms of democratic representation. In Deliberation Naturalized (2020), Tanasoca develops a naturalized normative theory of deliberative democracy which stresses the role of citizen deliberation in what she refers to as ‘naturalistic’ settings, i.e., the public sphere. Both texts invite us to stretch our imaginations of how contemporary democracy can be deepened in deliberative ways.