What is this about?
What is deliberative democracy?
How is it different from other approaches to democracy?
Why do these differences matter?
Disclaimer
- There is no universally agreed definition of deliberative democracy.
- However, within the Democracy R&D network, there is (mostly) agreement on three core elements.
- Each element is an answer to a big question about the design of any political system.
- The “usual answers” in the next slides relate mainly to democratic political systems. However, the three elements could be relevant to any political system.
Three big questions about political decisions
How are decision makers (or other participants in political conversations) selected?
How do they interact?
How do they decide?
How are decision makers selected?
Civic lottery (aka random selection, sortition)
What is it?
Selecting a representative sample of the public, using lottery selection and “stratification” by relevant characteristics (for example, age, gender, income, ethnicity)
What are its advantages?
It produces a diverse group; it produces a representative group (a microcosm of the public; and the selection process is resistant to manipulation.
Important note
Most deliberative democrats don’t think that deliberation is the best form of interaction for all purposes. But we do think that we can’t solve the big problems of democracy without it.
How do they interact?
Deliberation
What is it?
A type of conversation that is informed, open-minded, non-adversarial, and focused on making a decision that could (ideally) work well for everyone.
What are its advantages?
Participants are well informed; incorporates diverse perspectives; not adversarial; produces better decisions.
Important note
Most deliberative democrats don’t think that deliberation is the best form of interaction for all purposes. But we do think that we can’t solve the big problems of democracy without it.
How do they decide?
Rough consensus
What is it?
A form of decision making where the goal is to get as close as possible, given time and resource constraints, to a decision that everyone could support.
What are its advantages?
Produces decisions that could be widely supported, within reasonable time constraints. Often these decisions are better than any options that participants would have advocated before the deliberation.
Important note
Most deliberative democrats don’t think that rough consensus is the best decision making process for all purposes. But we do think that we can’t solve the big problems of democracy without it.
All three questions, and answers
Comparing four approaches to democracy
Additional “elements” that complement the previous three