Following from the front: theorizing deliberative facilitation

Facilitation is indispensable to organized deliberative practices, yet largely absent from deliberative theory. This article theorizes the role of the deliberative facilitator through the central dilemma of ‘following from the front’. The facilitator necessarily occupies a leadership position in the deliberating group, yet must follow the group as it unfolds its own discourse on the issue at hand. This article will specify this tension in the framing of publics, the handling of expertise, the conduct of deliberation, and the crucial phase of bringing a deliberation to a conclusion. The various criticisms of deliberative practice in these dimensions are treated not as decisive objections, but rather as tensions to be negotiated by those who organize and conduct deliberative minipublics. This article aims to show the value of critical empirical work on deliberative practices as describing potential dangers, which can be set against the normative ideals and democratic potentials involved in attempts to generate deliberation in minipublics.