Towards A Deliberative And Associational Democracy

In an era where citizens of liberal democracies are becoming increasingly disillusioned, dissatisfied and disenfranchised by the dominant political institutions and decision-making processes in these polities, new ideas of how to deepen democracy, re-engage citizens and enhance decision-making legitimacy are required. This book suggests that a combination of deliberative democracy and associational democracy is both a normatively desirable and an empirically plausible solution to the complex problems that are present in contemporary societies--as well as being compatible with many recent trends in governance. Author Stephen Elstub argues that by combining deliberative with associational democracy, the weaknesses of each model alone are compensated by the other, allowing the key strengths of each to manifest themselves. And he goes further by offering a detailed set of original, institutional requirements for liberal democracies that, if adopted, will enable a deliberative and associational democracy to be realised in practice.

Tocqueville's view that a virtuous and viable democracy depends on robust associational life has become a cornerstone of contemporary democratic theory. Democratic theorists generally agree that issue networks, recreational associations, support circles, religious groups, unions, advocacy groups, and myriad other kinds of associations enhance democracy by cultivating citizenship, promoting public deliberation, providing voice and representation, and enabling varied forms of governance. Yet there has been little work to show how and why different kinds of association have different effects on democracy--many supportive but others minimal or even destructive. This book offers the first systematic assessment of what associations do and don't do for democracy. Mark Warren explains how and when associational life expands the domain, inclusiveness, and authenticity of democracy. He looks at which associations are most likely to foster individuals' capacities for democratic citizenship, provoke political debate, open existing institutions, guide market activities, or bring democratic decision-making to new venues. Throughout, Warren also considers the trade-offs involved, noting, for example, that organizational solidarity can dampen internal dissent and deliberation even as it enhances public deliberation. Blending political and social theory with an eye to social science, Democracy and Association will draw social scientists with interests in democracy, political philosophers, students of public policy, as well as the many activists who fortify the varied landscape we call civil society. As an original analysis of which associational soils yield vigorous democracies, the book will have a major impact on democratic theory and empirical research.

Deliberative democracy is the darling of democratic theory and political theory more generally. In this book, a number of leading democratic theorists address the key issues that surround the theory and practice of deliberative democracy.

Democracy is an issue of major importance in theory and practice in politics throughout the world. However, democracy’s study and advancement has been significantly compromised by a dichotomy between theorising about democracy, and empirical studies of democracy in practice. In addition to highlighting the need for this gap to be overcome, this book contributes to overcoming this divide, by demonstrating a number of ways that democracy in theory and practice can be synthesised; deepening our understanding of the relationship between democracy in theory and practice in the process. Different, but related, democratic principles and concepts are considered such as legitimacy, political equality, deliberation, and participation. A range of practical contexts are also investigated including multi-level polities, deeply divided societies, whole polities, local rural and urban areas, and a range of democratic processes, innovations and spectacular events. Moreover, the book sets the agenda for future work to combine democracy in theory and practice. This book was originally published as a special issue of Representation.

This book aims to unlock the current crisis in democratic accountability by supplementing representative democracy with democratic governance in civil society.

Democratic Innovation is an original look at the political future of democracy, exploring the latest ideas aimed at renewing popular power. Featuring new writings by leading European, American and Australian democratic theorists, this book explores the following themes: * the importance of public deliberation in democracies * how effective representation for all might be acheived * the role that voluntary associations can play in democratic governance

The twenty-first century is characterized by the global circulation of cultures, norms, representations, discourses, and human rights claims; the arising conflicts require innovative understandings of decision making. Deliberative Acts develops a new, cogent theory of performative deliberation. Rather than conceiving deliberation within the familiar frameworks of persuasion, identification, or procedural democracy, it privileges speech acts and bodily enactments that constitute deliberation itself, reorienting deliberative theory toward the initiating moment of recognition, a moment in which interlocutors are positioned in relationship to each other and so may begin to construct a new lifeworld. By approaching human rights not as norms or laws, but as deliberative acts, Lyon conceives rights as relationships among people and as ongoing political and historical projects developing communal norms through global and cross-cultural interactions.

A major new statement of deliberative theory that shows how states, even transnational systems, can be deliberatively democratic.