Suchergebnisse

This thesis contains a critical analysis of deliberative democracy. I present the normative arguments for the theory in the context of a discussion of how to explicate democracy more generally, and I assess these arguments throughout the thesis. I defend a Habermasian interpretation of the deliberative ideal, and I argue that we should conceive of deliberative democracy in participatory, dialogical, and adversarial terms. I discuss the implications of acute moral disagreement and the necessarily mediated nature of much deliberative exchange. ; TARA (Trinity?s Access to Research Archive) has a robust takedown policy. Please contact us if you have any concerns: rssadmin@tcd.ie

We analyse a citizens' jury experiment held in Dublin on the 'hot-button' issue of waste incineration. The jury was a random sample drawn from the 2002 Irish Election Study (IES), and we compare jurors to non-jurors in the 2002 IES, and in 2003 and 2004 panel studies. Large opinion shifts were observed in a representative jury; these shifts remained observable nine months later. However, as a direct consequence of our choice of a contested issue, the jurors' verdict was framed by the unwillingness of key stakeholders to participate. Stakeholders who expect to be on the 'losing' side, including public representatives and officials, may obstruct and delegitimise citizens' juries by withholding participation. This informal gatekeeping power undermines the potential of citizens' juries to empower citizens.