Internet Co-regulation Organisms in Search of Consensus: Towards Procedural Democracy?

Either seen as a “new spirit” (Blondiaux and Sintomer 2002) – following Luc Boltanski and Eve Chiapello’s “new spirit of capitalism” (Boltanski and Chiapello 1999) – or as a “new instrument” (Lascoumes and Le Galès 2004) of public action and public policy making, modern democracies are more and more resorting to public discussion and deliberation to accompany decision making processes. Legitimacy of legislation, regulation and other normative decisions is often sought for with references to deliberative democracy ideals, as defined by Bernard Manin who highlighted the role of the wills making process over the pre-existing wills (Manin 1985) and as analyzed by Jürgen Habermas who showed how the need for the definition and the respect of, at the same time and in interrelation, deliberative and legal procedures are the necessary conditions of a legitimate use of law, even without considering any normative content (Habermas 1997).