Contemporary challenges to democracy include populism, extremism, truth denial, and authoritarianism. This book provides a compelling response to these challenges, arguing that the crisis of democracy can be overcome by a citizen-centric deliberative approach.
The first comprehensive account of the booming phenomenon of deliberative mini-publics, this book offers a systematic review of their variety, discusses their weaknesses, and recommends ways to make them a viable component of democracy. The book takes stock of the diverse practices of deliberative mini-publics and, more concretely, looks at preconditions, processes, and outcomes. It provides a critical assessment of the experience with mini-publics; in particular their lack of policy impact. Bringing together leading scholars in the field, notably James S Fishkin and Mark E Warren, Deliberative Mini-Publics will speak to anyone with an interest in democracy and democratic innovations.
In recent years, deliberation or reasoned dialogue has moved to the forefront in contemporary democratic theory. So far, most of the literature on deliberation has a philosophical or theoretical orientation with empirical research being in its infancy. Moreover, there is also no systematic investigation of political institutions that might be favorable to deliberation as well as a dearth of measurement instruments that would allow to 'measure' the quality of deliberation. This book tries to narrow the empirical, institutional, and measurement gap in the study of deliberation. On the basis of parliamentary debates in Switzerland, the United States, and Germany, it analyzes the effects of institutional and issue contexts on the quality of deliberation. The analysis shows that consensus institutions, presidential systems, second chambers, non-publicity, and low issue polarization further deliberation, particularly by enhancing respectful exchanges among participants. Furthermore, when the favorable contexts combine, we can detect debates that in parts have features of ideal discourses.