Legitimacy and economy in deliberative democracy

Political Theory

Volumn 29, Issue 5, 2001, Pages 651-669

  Dryzek, John S ^a  

^a AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY   (Australia)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0035537731     PISSN: 00905917     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/0090591701029005003     Document Type: Article

References (78)

1. Joshua Cohen, "Deliberation and Democratic Legitimacy, "in The Good Polity: Normative Analysis of the State, ed. Alan Hamlin and Philip Pettit (Oxford, UK: Basil Blackwell, 1989), 17-34. See also Bernard Manin, "On Legitimacy and Political Deliberation, "Political Theory 15 (1987): 338-68.
2. Joshua Cohen, "Deliberation and Democratic Legitimacy, "in The Good Polity: Normative Analysis of the State, ed. Alan Hamlin and Philip Pettit (Oxford, UK: Basil Blackwell, 1989), 17-34. See also Bernard Manin, "On Legitimacy and Political Deliberation, "Political Theory 15 (1987): 338-68.
3. Seyla Benhabib, "Toward a Deliberative Model of Democratic Legitimacy, "in Democracy and Difference: Contesting the Boundaries of the Political, ed. Seyla Benhabib (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996), 67-94 at 68.
4. See, for example, Amy Gutmann and Dennis Thompson, Democracy and Disagreement (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996), 144.
5. Ian Shapiro, "Enough of Deliberation: Politics Is About Interest and Power, "in Deliberative Politics: Essays on Democracy and Disagreement, ed. Stephen Macedo (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 28-38 at 33.
6. Cohen, "Deliberation and Democratic Legitimacy, "22.
7. Manin, "On Legitimacy and Political Deliberation, "352.
8. Defenders of the approach to deliberative legitimacy taken by authors such as Benhabib, Cohen, and Manin might say they are simply presenting a counterfactual ideal through reference to which various practical proposals can be evaluated. But the ideal is so far from any plausible real-world proposals that it has little ability to sort them.
9. Robert A. Dahl, After the Revolution? (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1970).
10. Michael Walzer, "Deliberation, and What Else?" in Deliberative Politics: Essays on Democracy and Disagreement, ed. Stephen Macedo (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 58-69 at 68.
11. Not to be confused with Gutmann and Thompson's proposed "economy of moral disagreement, "which refers to the idea that deliberators who disagree on fundamental matters should nevertheless seek to identify points where they can agree. See Gutmann and Thompson, Democracy and Disagreement.
12. John Rawls, Political Liberalism (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993).
13. Bruce Ackerman, We the People I: Foundations (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1991).
14. For example, Joseph M. Bessette, The Mild Voice of Reason: Deliberative Democracy and American National Government (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994); Cass Sunstein, "Deliberation, Democracy, Disagreement, "In Justice and Democracy: Cross-Cultural Perspectives, ed. Ron Bontekoe and Marieta Stepaniants (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1997), 93-117 at 94.
15. For example, Joseph M. Bessette, The Mild Voice of Reason: Deliberative Democracy and American National Government (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994); Cass Sunstein, "Deliberation, Democracy, Disagreement, "In Justice and Democracy: Cross-Cultural Perspectives, ed. Ron Bontekoe and Marieta Stepaniants (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1997), 93-117 at 94.
16. James Fishkin, Democracy and Deliberation: New Directions for Democratic Reform (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1991); James Fishkin, The Voice of the People: Public Opinion and Democracy (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1995); Robert A. Dahl, Controlling Nuclear Weapons (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1985); John Burnheim, Is Democracy Possible? (Cambridge, UK: Polity, 1985).
17. James Fishkin, Democracy and Deliberation: New Directions for Democratic Reform (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1991); James Fishkin, The Voice of the People: Public Opinion and Democracy (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1995); Robert A. Dahl, Controlling Nuclear Weapons (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1985); John Burnheim, Is Democracy Possible? (Cambridge, UK: Polity, 1985).
18. James Fishkin, Democracy and Deliberation: New Directions for Democratic Reform (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1991); James Fishkin, The Voice of the People: Public Opinion and Democracy (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1995); Robert A. Dahl, Controlling Nuclear Weapons (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1985); John Burnheim, Is Democracy Possible? (Cambridge, UK: Polity, 1985).
19. James Fishkin, Democracy and Deliberation: New Directions for Democratic Reform (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1991); James Fishkin, The Voice of the People: Public Opinion and Democracy (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1995); Robert A. Dahl, Controlling Nuclear Weapons (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1985); John Burnheim, Is Democracy Possible? (Cambridge, UK: Polity, 1985).
20. Lynn Sanders, "Poll Envy: An Assessment of Deliberative Polling, "The Good Society 9, no. 1 (1999): 9-14.
21. Rawls, Political Liberalism; John Rawls, "The Idea of Public Reason Revisited, "University of Chicago Law Review 94 (1997): 765-807.
22. Rawls, Political Liberalism; John Rawls, "The Idea of Public Reason Revisited, "University of Chicago Law Review 94 (1997): 765-807.
23. See Benhabib, "Toward a Deliberative Model, "75.
24. Rawls, Political Liberalism, 231.
25. Rawls, "The Idea of Public Reason, "771-72.
26. Robert E. Goodin, "Democratic Deliberation Within, "Philosophy and Public Affairs 29 (2000): 81-109.
27. Robyn Eckersley, "Deliberative Democracy, Ecological Risk, and 'Communities-of-Fate, '" in Democratic Innovation: Deliberation, Association, and Representation, ed. Michael Saward (London: Routledge, 2000).
28. For an argument that communications from nonhuman entities can be received by deliberators, see John S. Dryzek, "Political and Ecological Communication, "Environmental Politics 4 (1995): 13-30.
29. Dennis Thompson, "Democratic Theory and Global Society, "Journal of Political Philosophy 7 (1999): 111-25 at 122.
30. Phil Cleary, quoted in The Age (Melbourne), October 25, 1999, 1. Push-polling is a marketing tactic where interviewees are asked leading questions and given biased information to induce them to buy a product - or support a position or candidate.
31. Jürgen Habermas, Between Facts and Norms: Contributions to a Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1996).
32. Jürgen Habermas, Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1989).
33. For example, Habermas, Between Facts and Norms, 185, 308.
34. See especially Jürgen Habermas, "Three Normative Models of Democracy, "in Democracy and Difference: Contesting the Boundaries of the Political, ed. Seyla Benhabib (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996), 21-30 at 28. See also Habermas, Between Facts and Norms, 368, 381.
35. See especially Jürgen Habermas, "Three Normative Models of Democracy, "in Democracy and Difference: Contesting the Boundaries of the Political, ed. Seyla Benhabib (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996), 21-30 at 28. See also Habermas, Between Facts and Norms, 368, 381.
36. William H. Riker, Liberalism against Populism: A Confrontation between the Theory of Democracy and the Theory of Social Choice (San Francisco: Freeman, 1982).
37. Other problems arise in applying the model to the real world that is supposedly its justification. Habermas recognizes but does not develop an adequate response to some serious constraints on lawmaking and policy making that do not emanate from and can override public opinion. These anti-democratic constraints include the pervasive political influence of money and corporate power and the policy imperatives dictated by the need to please financial markets and avoid disinvestment or capital flight. At a potentially high cost to his theory, at one point he suggests that the public sphere is more vulnerable to such distortions than is the legislature; see Between Facts and Norms, 307-8.
38. John S. Dryzek, Deliberative Democracy and Beyond: Liberals, Critics, Contestations (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2000). The terms deliberative democracy and discursive democracy are now used interchangeably and deliberative democracy more often. However, I believe it useful to recover the idea of discursive democracy as a critical subcategory of deliberative democracy. When it comes to contestation. Fraser too speaks of contestation in the public sphere, though engaged by publics rather than discourses. Specifically, contestation for Fraser characterizes the orientation of "subaltern counterpublics" to dominant power structures. She treats contestation as an alternative to deliberation, rather than a category of deliberation. See Nancy Fraser, "Rethinking the Public Sphere: A Contribution to the Critique of Actually Existing Democracy, "in Habermas and the Public Sphere, ed. Craig Calhoun (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1992), 109-42.
39. John S. Dryzek, Deliberative Democracy and Beyond: Liberals, Critics, Contestations (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2000). The terms deliberative democracy and discursive democracy are now used interchangeably and deliberative democracy more often. However, I believe it useful to recover the idea of discursive democracy as a critical subcategory of deliberative democracy. When it comes to contestation. Fraser too speaks of contestation in the public sphere, though engaged by publics rather than discourses. Specifically, contestation for Fraser characterizes the orientation of "subaltern counterpublics" to dominant power structures. She treats contestation as an alternative to deliberation, rather than a category of deliberation. See Nancy Fraser, "Rethinking the Public Sphere: A Contribution to the Critique of Actually Existing Democracy, "in Habermas and the Public Sphere, ed. Craig Calhoun (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1992), 109-42.
40. For example, Benhabib, "Toward a Model of Democratic Legitimacy"; James Bohman, Public Deliberation: Pluralism, Complexity, and Democracy (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1996); John S. Dryzek, Discursive Democracy: Politics, Policy, and Political Science (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990).
41. For example, Benhabib, "Toward a Model of Democratic Legitimacy"; James Bohman, Public Deliberation: Pluralism, Complexity, and Democracy (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1996); John S. Dryzek, Discursive Democracy: Politics, Policy, and Political Science (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990).
42. For example, Benhabib, "Toward a Model of Democratic Legitimacy"; James Bohman, Public Deliberation: Pluralism, Complexity, and Democracy (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1996); John S. Dryzek, Discursive Democracy: Politics, Policy, and Political Science (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990).
43. Habermas, Between Facts and Norms, 486.
44. Benhabib, "Toward a Model of Democratic Legitimacy, "74.
45. Pierre Bourdieu, The Field of Cultural Production (Cambridge, UK: Polity, 1993).
46. See, for example, Ulrich Beck, Anthony Giddens, and Scott Lash, Reflexive Modernization: Politics, Tradition and Aesthetics in the Modern Social Order (Cambridge, UK: Polity, 1994).
47. Dryzek, Deliberative Democracy and Beyond.
48. For example, David van Mill, "The Possibility of Rational Outcomes from Democratic Discourse and Procedures, "Journal of Politics 58(1996): 734-52.
49. Habermas, Between Facts and Norms, 486.
50. Habermas, Between Facts and Norms; Habermas, "Three Normative Models."
51. Habermas, Between Facts and Norms; Habermas, "Three Normative Models."
52. David Miller, "Deliberative Democracy and Social Choice, "Political Studies 40 (special issue): 54-67.
53. For example, Iris Marion Young, "Communication and the Other: Beyond Deliberative Democracy, "in Democracy and Difference: Contesting the Boundaries of the Political, ed. Seyla Benhabib (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996), 120-35; Iris Marion Young, "Inclusive Political Communication: Greeting, Rhetoric and Storytelling in the Context of Political Argument" (paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Boston, September 1998); Lynn Sanders, "Against Deliberation, "Political Theory 25 (1997): 347-76. Similar concerns were raised by Jane Mansbridge. "Feminism and Democracy, "American Prospect 1 (1990).
54. For example, Iris Marion Young, "Communication and the Other: Beyond Deliberative Democracy, "in Democracy and Difference: Contesting the Boundaries of the Political, ed. Seyla Benhabib (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996), 120-35; Iris Marion Young, "Inclusive Political Communication: Greeting, Rhetoric and Storytelling in the Context of Political Argument" (paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Boston, September 1998); Lynn Sanders, "Against Deliberation, "Political Theory 25 (1997): 347-76. Similar concerns were raised by Jane Mansbridge. "Feminism and Democracy, "American Prospect 1 (1990).
55. For example, Iris Marion Young, "Communication and the Other: Beyond Deliberative Democracy, "in Democracy and Difference: Contesting the Boundaries of the Political, ed. Seyla Benhabib (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996), 120-35; Iris Marion Young, "Inclusive Political Communication: Greeting, Rhetoric and Storytelling in the Context of Political Argument" (paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Boston, September 1998); Lynn Sanders, "Against Deliberation, "Political Theory 25 (1997): 347-76. Similar concerns were raised by Jane Mansbridge. "Feminism and Democracy, "American Prospect 1 (1990).
56. For example, Iris Marion Young, "Communication and the Other: Beyond Deliberative Democracy, "in Democracy and Difference: Contesting the Boundaries of the Political, ed. Seyla Benhabib (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996), 120-35; Iris Marion Young, "Inclusive Political Communication: Greeting, Rhetoric and Storytelling in the Context of Political Argument" (paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Boston, September 1998); Lynn Sanders, "Against Deliberation, "Political Theory 25 (1997): 347-76. Similar concerns were raised by Jane Mansbridge. "Feminism and Democracy, "American Prospect 1 (1990).
57. Dryzek, Deliberative Democracy and Beyond, 68. On applying the third of these tests to testimony, see also David Miller, "Is Deliberative Democracy Unfair to Disadvantaged Minorities?" (unpublished paper, Nuffield College, Oxford, 1999).
58. Dryzek, Deliberative Democracy and Beyond, 68. On applying the third of these tests to testimony, see also David Miller, "Is Deliberative Democracy Unfair to Disadvantaged Minorities?" (unpublished paper, Nuffield College, Oxford, 1999).
59. William E. Connolly, Identity/Difference: Democratic Negotiations of Political Paradox (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1991).
60. See, for example, Seyla Benhabib, "Communicative Ethics and Contemporary Controversies in Practical Philosophy, "in The Communicative Ethics Controversy, ed. Seyla Benhabib and Fred Dallmayr (Cambridge. MA: MIT Press, 1990); James Bohman, "Public Reason and Cultural Pluralism: Political Liberalism and the Problem of Moral Conflict, "Political Theory 23 (1995): 253-79; Dryzek, Discursive Democracy, 16-17; Carol Gould, Rethinking Democracy (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1988), 18, 126-27; Gerry Mackie, "Models of Democratic Deliberation" (paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Chicago, September 1995).
61. See, for example, Seyla Benhabib, "Communicative Ethics and Contemporary Controversies in Practical Philosophy, "in The Communicative Ethics Controversy, ed. Seyla Benhabib and Fred Dallmayr (Cambridge. MA: MIT Press, 1990); James Bohman, "Public Reason and Cultural Pluralism: Political Liberalism and the Problem of Moral Conflict, "Political Theory 23 (1995): 253-79; Dryzek, Discursive Democracy, 16-17; Carol Gould, Rethinking Democracy (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1988), 18, 126-27; Gerry Mackie, "Models of Democratic Deliberation" (paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Chicago, September 1995).
62. See, for example, Seyla Benhabib, "Communicative Ethics and Contemporary Controversies in Practical Philosophy, "in The Communicative Ethics Controversy, ed. Seyla Benhabib and Fred Dallmayr (Cambridge. MA: MIT Press, 1990); James Bohman, "Public Reason and Cultural Pluralism: Political Liberalism and the Problem of Moral Conflict, "Political Theory 23 (1995): 253-79; Dryzek, Discursive Democracy, 16-17; Carol Gould, Rethinking Democracy (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1988), 18, 126-27; Gerry Mackie, "Models of Democratic Deliberation" (paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Chicago, September 1995).
63. See, for example, Seyla Benhabib, "Communicative Ethics and Contemporary Controversies in Practical Philosophy, "in The Communicative Ethics Controversy, ed. Seyla Benhabib and Fred Dallmayr (Cambridge. MA: MIT Press, 1990); James Bohman, "Public Reason and Cultural Pluralism: Political Liberalism and the Problem of Moral Conflict, "Political Theory 23 (1995): 253-79; Dryzek, Discursive Democracy, 16-17; Carol Gould, Rethinking Democracy (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1988), 18, 126-27; Gerry Mackie, "Models of Democratic Deliberation" (paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Chicago, September 1995).
64. See, for example, Seyla Benhabib, "Communicative Ethics and Contemporary Controversies in Practical Philosophy, "in The Communicative Ethics Controversy, ed. Seyla Benhabib and Fred Dallmayr (Cambridge. MA: MIT Press, 1990); James Bohman, "Public Reason and Cultural Pluralism: Political Liberalism and the Problem of Moral Conflict, "Political Theory 23 (1995): 253-79; Dryzek, Discursive Democracy, 16-17; Carol Gould, Rethinking Democracy (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1988), 18, 126-27; Gerry Mackie, "Models of Democratic Deliberation" (paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Chicago, September 1995).
65. Sunstein, "Deliberation, Democracy, Disagreement."
66. For a qualitative approach, see Maarten Hajer, The Politics of Environmental Discourse: Ecological Modernization and the Policy Process (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1995). For a quantitative method, see John S. Dryzek and Jeffrey Berejikian, "Reconstructive Demo-cratic Theory, "American Political Science Review 87 (1993): 48-60.
67. For a qualitative approach, see Maarten Hajer, The Politics of Environmental Discourse: Ecological Modernization and the Policy Process (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1995). For a quantitative method, see John S. Dryzek and Jeffrey Berejikian, "Reconstructive Demo-cratic Theory, "American Political Science Review 87 (1993): 48-60.
68. Elizabeth Theiss-Morse, Amy Fried, John L. Sullivan, and Mary Dietz, "Mixing Methods: A Multi-Stage Strategy for Studying Patriotism and Citizen Participation, "Political Analysis 3 (1992): 89-122.
69. Hajer, The Politics of Environmental Discourse, 269.
70. In standard individualistic accounts of democracy, legitimacy is granted to collective outcomes by people who disagree with them either as a result of instrumental calculation that they have a good chance of winning at some future point under the prevailing system of rules or through recognition that procedures were transparent and fair. The latter principles can be applied in a deliberative context. As Cohen puts it, "Because the members of a democratic association regard deliberative procedures as the source of legitimacy, it is important to them that the terms of their association not merely be the results of their deliberation, but that it be manifest to them as such" (Cohen, "Deliberation and Democratic Legitimacy, "21).
71. An additional reason why an individualistic ontology is inappropriate is that discourses are not like parties or clubs or groups, for they do not have members and so are not reducible to a well-defined set of members. It is quite possible for any individual to have simultaneous leanings toward multiple, perhaps incompatible, discourses. Or, to put it another way, subjectivity can be multidimensional. See Jon Elster, ed., The Multiple Self (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1986). For example, part of me may subscribe to a radical green critique of industrial society; another part of me may evaluate government according to how well it is promoting economic growth and a positive investment climate. Different (discursive) situations may invoke these different aspects of subjectivity, which can be latent or manifest at any given time or indeed not exist until the situation is such as to invoke the aspect in question.
72. Jane Mansbridge, "Everyday Talk in the Deliberative System, "in Deliberative Politics: Essays on Democracy and Disagreement, ed. Stephen Macedo (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 211-38.
73. See, for example, John S. Dryzek, Democracy in Capitalist Times: Ideals, Limits, and Struggles (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996).
74. David Schlosberg, Environmental Justice and the New Pluralism: The Challenge of Difference for Environmentalism (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1999). See also Douglas Torgerson, The Promise of Green Politics: Environmentalism and the Public Sphere (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1999), 148-54.
75. David Schlosberg, Environmental Justice and the New Pluralism: The Challenge of Difference for Environmentalism (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1999). See also Douglas Torgerson, The Promise of Green Politics: Environmentalism and the Public Sphere (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1999), 148-54.
76. For an example from the Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice in the USA, see Schlosberg, Environmental Justice, 128.
77. Habermas, Between Facts and Norms, 307.
78. Dryzek, Democracy in Capitalist Times, 64-70.