Workshop: The Future of Deliberative Democracy

Deliberative democracy has been the main game in contemporary political theory for two decades and has grown enormously in size and importance in political science and many other disciplines. Yet, the world at large appears to be moving in some disconcerting anti-deliberative directions. Post-truth politics is the antithesis of deliberative democracy and we see in some quarters levels of political polarization that signal inabilities to listen to the other side. Based on the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Deliberative Democracy (eds. André Bächtiger, John S. Dryzek, Jane Mansbridge and Mark Warren), this workshop sketches future avenues for deliberative practice and research. The workshop is organized around three themes: 

(1) the mapping of deliberation in a democratic system, focusing on the evolution of the deliberative paradigm in the past thirty years, its ´opening up´ toward ´alternative forms of communication´ (such as narratives, rhetorics, and bargaining) and remaining tensions between deliberative and democratic ideals; 

(2)  the goals of deliberation with a specific focus on its epistemic dimensions; 

(3) the links between deliberation and one of its main contenders in the analysis of political communication, ´framing´. 

With Simone Chambers (University of California, Irvine), John S. Dryzek (University of Canberra), Hélène Landemore (Yale University), Jane Mansbridge (Harvard University), Maija Setälä (University of Turku), Rune Slothuus (Aarhus University).

Institut für Navigation 

Universität Stuttgart

Breitscheidstraße 2

4. OG, Raum 4/6 Navigatoren Besprechungsraum 

13:30-13:45 

Welcome

13:45-14:45

John S. Dryzek, Jane Mansbridge, Simone Chambers, André Bächtiger 

14:45-15:15

Coffee Break

15:15-16:15 

Hélène Landemore, Simone Chambers

16:15-16:30

Short Break

16:30-17:30

Rune Slothuus 

futureofdeliberativedemocracy@gmail.com