Deliberation

In the context of political communication, deliberation refers to a process of reasoning and discussion about political matters. Deliberation takes place in parliamentary debate, expert panels, deliberative decision-making bodies, news media content, political talk shows, online discussion forums, civil society organizations, and everyday political talk among citizens.

Normative theories of deliberative democracy place particular emphasis on the democratic value of deliberation. Although by no means a uniform group, deliberative democratic theorists agree on the centrality of argumentative exchange in political communication in order to foster both the cognitive quality of political judgment (rationality) and mutual respect [Page 168]and cohesion among deliberators (social integration). Deliberation is usually considered to be an alternative to both bargaining and rhetoric. Although bargaining involves the pursuit of particularistic interests by means ...