From public reason to deliberative democracy

Deliberative Democracy and Public Sphere Typology

Public Sphere The third kind of public sphere, named by Habermas as the “abstract public sphere”, is produced by media, which connects singular and globally spread readers, listeners and spectators (BFN, 1996: 308). In the Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere Habermas conceives the small press as an important institution for the conveyance of ideas and the establishment of the rationa...

From e-Government to Online Deliberative Democracy

The possibilities for promoting an expanded conception of democratic political participation through information and communications technologies (ICTs) have been widely observed. Potential synergies between ICT developments and democratic renewal arise from the two-way, interactive nature of new digital media, and their technical enhancement of citizen capacities to access, produce, distribute,...

Activist Challenges to Deliberative Democracy

Screen and song celebrate social justice movements that protested in the streets when they were convinced that existing institutions and their normal procedures only reinforced the status quo. Many rights have been won in democratic societies by means of courageous activism — the eight hour day, votes for women, the right to sit at any lunch counter. Yet contemporary democratic theory rarely re...

Rhetoric and Deliberative Democracy

Making Deliberative Democracy Practical: Public Consultation and Dispute Resolution

Deliberative democracy is a form of alternative dispute resolution. Consulting the public in a thoughtful and representative way can lead to consequential public policy outcomes that might otherwise have been difficult to achieve. However, some recent literature appears to treat deliberative democracy and alternative dispute resolution as rivals.! While there are differences in emphasis and in ...