Democracy When the People Are Thinking: Revitalizing Our Politics Through Public Deliberatio

Democracy When the People Are Thinking: Revitalizing Our Politics Through Public Deliberation – Ebook Instant Download/Delivery ISBN(s): 9780198820291,0198820291,9780192551900, 0192551906

Product details:

• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0192551906
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 9780192551900
• Author: James S. Fishkin

Democracy requires a connection to the ‘will of the people’. What does that mean in a world of ‘fake news’, relentless advocacy, dialogue mostly among the like-minded, and massive spending to manipulate public opinion? What kind of opinion can the public have under such conditions? What would democracy be like if the people were really thinking in depth about the policies they must live with? If they really ‘deliberated’ with good information about their political choices?

This book argues that ‘deliberative democracy’ is not utopian. It is a practical solution to many of democracy’s ills. It can supplement existing institutions with practical reforms. It can apply at all levels of government and for many different kinds of policy choices. This volume speaks to a recurring dilemma: listen to the people and get the angry voices of populism or rely on widely distrusted elites and get policies that seem out of touch with the public’s concerns. Instead, there are methods for getting a representative and thoughtful public voice that is really worth listening to. Democracy is under siege in most countries, where democratic institutions have low approval and face a resurgent threat from authoritarian regimes. Deliberative democracy can provide an antidote and can reinvigorate our democratic politics.

Table contents:

Part I: Introduction

1. Party Competition and Its Limits

2. Deliberation and Reform

 

Part II: Can the People Rule?

1. Four Criteria for Popular Control

2. Four Forms of Democracy

3. Popular Control in Competitive Democracies

4. Is There Democracy for “Realists”?

5. Manipulation

6. Elite Deliberation and Popular Control: Madison’s Filter

7. Participatory Democracy and Democratic Control: From Town Meetings to Referenda

8. Reflections on the Athenian Case

 

Part III: Making Deliberation Practical

1. Designing Deliberative Democracy

2. Deliberative Agenda-Setting: California in One Room

3. Mongolia: Deliberative Participatory Budgeting

4. Applying Deliberative Democracy in Africa: Uganda’s First Deliberative Polls

5. Deliberating European-Wide?

 

Part IV: Reimagining Democratic Possibilities

1. Designs for Deliberation: Where and How?

2. It Works in Practice, But Does It Work in Theory?

3. From Thought Experiments to Real Experiments: Reflections on Rawls and Habermas

4. Deliberative Democracy and Candidate Selection

5. Texas: Connecting Public Deliberation to Policy Elites

6. Connecting Deliberative Designs to Participatory Democracy

7. Deliberating Before Ballot Propositions: Reflecting on the “Australian Republic”

8. Japan: Deliberation for Hard Choices

9. Deliberation Day

10. Connecting Deliberative Democracy to Constitutional Change

11. Speculating on New Institutions

12. Mongolia Deliberates on Constitutional Change

13. “Deliberative Authoritarianism”?

14. “Deliberative Systems” and Popular Control

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