Deliberating in the real world: problems of legitimacy in deliberative democracy

Offering a rethink of the institutional limits and possibilities of deliberative democracy and legitimacy, this volume explores the concept of a multifaceted deliberative system and examines several unresolved problems at the core of deliberative democratic theory

Offering a rethink of the institutional limits and possibilities of deliberative democracy and legitimacy, this volume explores the concept of a multifaceted deliberative system and examines several unresolved problems at the core of deliberative democratic theory.

Deliberative democracy has become the central reference point for democracy theorists over the last decade or so, influencing normative frameworks and the ways we conceptualize the workings of democratic societies. It has also been linked with a burst of experimentation with new procedures that involve citizens directly in deliberations about public policy. But there is a contradiction at the heart of deliberative democracy: it seems that it cannot deliver legitimate agreements. Deliberative decisions are said to be legitimate when all those subject to them take part in free and equal debate