Realizing Deliberative Democracy as a Mode of Inquiry: Pragmatism, Social Facts, and Normative Theory

When compared to alternative theories of democracy, deliberative democracy demands much of its citizens and thereby raises the standard of political legitimacy. There are many versions of deliberative democracy, with some more liberal and oriented to the institutions of the constitutional state and others more participatory and oriented to affording citizens more direct opportunities to influence decisions. All share the common demand that democracy is the rule by citizens of their common affairs through the public use of reason. Deliberative democracy, broadly defined, is thus any one of a family of views according to which the public deliberation of free and equal citizens is the core of legitimate political decision making and self-government. Behind this fundamental agreement, each of the terms of this definition is hotly debated among deliberative democrats, who have put forth a variety of conceptions of the deliberative process and its normative constraints. Various institutional and noninstitutional locations for deliberation have been proposed and debated, as well as various attempts to determine the conditions of feasibility for deliberative democracy. 1