Deliberative Democracy

Early Influences

Two of the early influences on deliberative democratic theory are John Rawls and Jürgen Habermas. Rawls advocated the use of reason in securing the framework for a just political society. For Rawls, reason curtails self-interest to justify the structure of a political society that is fair for all participants in that society and secures equal rights for all members of that society. These conditions secure the possibility for fair citizen participation in the future. Habermas claimed that fair procedures and clear communication can produce legitimate and consensual decisions by citizens. These fair procedures governing the deliberative process are what legitimate the outcomes.

Features of Deliberation

Deliberative theorists tend to argue that publicity is a necessary feature of legitimate democratic processes. First, issues within a democracy should be public and should be publicly debated. Second, processes within democratic institutions must be public and subject to public scrutiny. Finally, in addition to being provided with information, citizens need to ensure the use of a public form of reason to ground political decisions. The public nature of the reason used to ground political decisions generates outcomes that are fair and reasonable, but subject to revision if warranted by new information or further deliberation.

Some deliberative theorists claim that the deliberative process of exchanging arguments for contrasting viewpoints can and should produce a consensus. Others think that disagreement will remain after the deliberative process is completed, but that deliberation can produce legitimate outcomes without consensus. Even when the exchange of reason, arguments, and viewpoints does not seem to produce a clear outcome, many deliberative theorists suggest that the dissent produced, and the continuing debate, enhances the democratic process.

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