Deliberative Democracy

• Intro: Deliberative Democracy represents a system where laws are products of rational debate. It is a characteristic of open society.
• While traditional democratic theory relied on voting as the source of legitimacy of democratic decision making, for deliberative democracy a democratic decision will be regarded as democratic only if it is the outcome of authentic deliberation
• delib demo rejects bentham’s aggregate model that gives rise to majoritarian democracies. It is based on consociational model where the arguements of all stakeholders are heard. It is based on the premise that democracy is not just head counting mechanism .
• Deliberative is normative as it focuses on values rather than procedeual theory . Procedural theory like elitist and pluralist look democracy as electoral mechanism or pressure group politics
• Supporters:
• Pericles- discussion is a precondition rather than an obstacle for any wise action
  
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  Aristotle- against philosopher king and favoured polity where people came and deliberated. 
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  Sen argues that deliberation has a constructive value because through dialogue, discussion and debate, we come to understand what our real needs really are.
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  Mill- freedom of speech and expression . Laws should be product of deliberations
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  Arendt- most important action performed by man is political action through debates in “public sphere.”
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  Idea of democracy is based on delibeartion and human reasoning- locke
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  Habermas- in his book “Legitimation crisis” Says to gain legitimacy, policies should be the result of ideal speech situation and communicative action. Real strength of democracy comes from coffee houses.
• Nancy fraser- develop a “ counter public “for the weaker sections to raise their voice.
  
• Joshua Cohen - there is only one force, the force of argument.
  
• Gave 5 features of deliberative democracy
1. Independent and ongoing association of people
2. People should accept that deliberation would be deciding factor in the formulation of policies
3. Non coercive environment. Non coercive environment requires civic virtues like tolerance, respect for human dignity, sense of citizenship
4. Respect for pluralism of values
5. Deliberations as source of legitimacy.

• Conclusion
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  Rawls- In his Theory of Justice writes- The definitive idea for deliberative democracy is the idea of deliberation itself. When citizens deliberate, they exchange views and debate their supporting reasons concerning public political questions.