Democracy is in crisis, or so we are incessantly told. Democratic innovations are tools that can help salvage democracies in their current form by reintegrating core democratic features such as mass participation, deliberation and political equality. In this seminar on democratic theory we will get to know the concept of deliberative democracy with a special focus on “mini publics”, an institution based around the selection method of random sampling and facilitated small group discussion. We will introduce the theory of deliberative democracy in general before going into depth with mini publics. We will be discussing their upsides and their shortcomings and examine how mini publics can enforce democratic values and subsequently get to know some criticisms of their connectivity and integrability in the political landscape.
Literature:
Beauvais, E., & Warren, M. E. (2019). What can deliberative mini‐publics contribute to democratic systems?. European Journal of Political Research, 58(3), 893-914.
Beauvais, E. (2018). Deliberation and equality. In: Bächtiger, A., Mansbridge, J., Dryzek, J. Warren, M. (Eds.): The Oxford handbook of deliberative democracy, 144-155.
Fishkin, J. (2009). When the people speak: Deliberative democracy and public consultation. Oxford University Press.
Karpowitz, C. F., & Mendelberg, T. (2014). The silent sex. Princeton University Press.
Lafont, C. (2015). Deliberation, participation, and democratic legitimacy: Should deliberative mini‐publics shape public policy?. Journal of political philosophy, 23(1), 40-63.
Setälä, M., & Smith, G. (2018). Mini-publics and deliberative democracy. In: Bächtiger, A., Mansbridge, J., Dryzek, J. Warren, M. (Eds.):The Oxford handbook of deliberative democracy, 300-314.
Goldberg, S., & Bächtiger, A. (2022). Catching the ‘Deliberative Wave’? How (Disaffected) Citizens Assess Deliberative Citizen Forums. British Journal of Political Science, 1-9.
- Lehrende/r: Eva Sophie Schmidt