Regenerating democracy with less polling and more deliberation

Democracy is unwell. Trust in politicians, institutions, experts, and other people is steadily falling across the OECD, and even young people seem to be losing faith in the system. What can be done? One idea that has gained traction and demonstrated potential of late is deliberative democracy: bringing together citizens, policymakers, area specialists, and other stakeholders to ponder a policy issue together. Hot off its success in generating a deep, heartfelt and restorative referendum on abortion in Ireland that bridged decades of animosity on the subject, more people are thinking maybe we need to get more deliberative. To explain how, regular host Dr Mark Fabian is joined this episode by deliberative democracy scholar Afsoun Afsahi from the University of British Columbia in Canada. Her research covers the theory and practice and deliberative democracy, and its potential to include often marginalised perspectives in the policymaking process. 

Afsoun’s homepage: https://politics.ubc.ca/profile/afsoun-afsahi/ 

Afsoun’s publications: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=VP6qLF8AAAAJ&hl=en

Final report of the Grandview Woodland citizen’s assembly: https://council.vancouver.ca/20150624/documents/ptec5_AppB.PDF 

Learn more about deliberative democracy around the Irish abortion referendum: https://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/the-irish-abortion-referendum-how-a-citizens-assembly-helped-to-break-years-of-political-deadlock/ 

Jenny Mansbridge and Archon Fung on self-interest in deliberative democracy: https://www.hks.harvard.edu/publications/place-self-interest-and-role-power-deliberative-democracy 

Brian Milstein, (2020). Justification crisis: Brexit, Trump, and deliberative breakdown. Political Theory,  https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0090591720968596 

Bohman, James. "" When Water Chokes": Ideology, Communication, and Practical Rationality." Constellations: An International Journal of Critical & Democratic Theory 7.3 (2000).

Matthews, J. Scott. "The political foundations of support for same-sex marriage in Canada." Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique 38.4 (2005): 841-866.

Michael Saward’s many publications on democracy: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=miPAuzoAAAAJ&hl=en 

Michael Neblo, Kevin Easterling, and David Lazer on direct deliberative democracy: https://faculty.wcas.northwestern.edu/jnd260/cab/CAB2018%20-%20Neblo.pdf 

Alexandria Ocasia Cortez cooking Q&A: https://www.facebook.com/NowThisHer/videos/aoc-hosts-cooking-qa-on-instagram-live/481505699487177/