An open access publication of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences
Summer 2017

Deliberative Citizens, (Non)Deliberative Politicians: A Rejoinder

Authors
André Bächtiger and Simon Beste
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Abstract

Are citizens or politicians (more) capable of deliberation, and when should they be willing to do so? In this essay, we first show that both politicians and citizens have the capacity to deliberate when institutions are appropriate. Yet high-quality deliberation sometimes collides with democratic principles and ideals. Therefore, we employ a “need-oriented” perspective, asking when and where citizens and the political workings of democracy need high-quality deliberation and when and where this is less the case. On this account, we propose a number of institutional interventions and reforms that may help boost deliberation in ways that both exploit its unique epistemic and ethical potential while simultaneously making it compatible with democratic principles and ideals.

ANDRÉ BÄCHTIGER is Chair of Political Theory at the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Stuttgart, Germany. His research has been published by Cambridge University Press and in such journals as the British Journal of Political Science, European Journal of Political Research, Journal of Political Philosophy, Political Studies, and Acta Politica. He is coeditor of the Oxford Handbook of Deliberative Democracy (with John Dryzek, Jane Mansbridge, and Mark Warren, forthcoming).

SIMON BESTE is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Lucerne, Switzerland. He has published articles in such journals as Acta Politica, Journal of Public Deliberation, Swiss Political Science Review, and Journal of Legislative Studies.