The Theories, Concepts and Practices of Democracy Deliberative Turn in Democratic Theory

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Thirty years of developments in deliberative democracy (DD) have consolidated this subfield of democratic theory. The book proposes an analytical map of developments in deliberative democracy (DD) that departs from previous attempts to explain them by using alleged "turns" (epistemic turn, empirical turn, etc.), or "generational shifts". This analytical approach clarifies what is at stake each time new “conceptual innovations” are proposed. The analysis of the various conceptual innovations proposed is then connected to the possible "institutional solutions" devised to boost the legitimacy of current liberal democratic regimes. The scope of the book is not merely academic, devoted to tracking the progress of a subdisciplinary field in democratic theory, but includes assessment of the public relevance of the academic debates developed in that subfield. The aim of the book is finally that of challenging the methodological tenets employed by deliberative democracy authors working within the four conceptual areas identified, and the vision of democracy they uphold. Developments in DD have been dominated by liberal perspectives subscribing to the minimalist notion of democracy defended by political economists. In challenging this minimalist notion of democracy, the book proposes an alternative way of seeing democracy. Antonino Palumbo (PhD) is a political theorist working on globalization, the transformation of governance, and the implications of changes in state steering for modern representative democracies. Thirty years of developments in deliberative democracy (DD) have consolidated this subfield of democratic theory. The acquired disciplinary prestige has made theorist and practitioners very confident about the ability of DD to address the legitimacy crisis experienced by liberal democracies at present at both theoretical and practical levels. The book advance a critical analysis of these developments that casts doubts on those certainties -- current theoretical debates are reproposing old methodological divisions, and are afraid to move beyond the minimalist model of democracy advocated by liberal thinkers; democratic experimentation at the micro-level seems to have no impact at the macro-level, and remain sets of isolated experiences. The book indicates that those defects are mainly due to the liberal minimalist frame of reference within which reflection in democratic theory and practice takes place. Consequently, it suggests to move beyond liberal understandings of democracy as a game in need of external rules, and adopt instead a vision of democracy as a self-correcting metagame.

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Pages: 293, Edition: 2024, Hardcover, Palgrave Macmillan