Public deliberation

How can we create a vital and inclusive pluralistic democracy? In Public Deliberation, James Bohman offers answers to this question, showing how democratic theory and democratic practice can be remade to face new challenges. Arguing against the skepticism about democracy that flourishes today on both ends of the political spectrum, Bohman proposes a model of public deliberation that will allow expansions of democratic practice, even in the face of increasing pluralism, inequality, and social complexity.

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Bohman builds on early Critical Theory and on the recent work of Jurgen Habermas and John Rawls (while taking into consideration criticisms of their work) to create a picture of a richer democratic practice based on the public reasoning of citizens.

Starting with an account of how deliberation actually works to promote agreement and cooperation, he develops a realistic model of deliberation by gradually introducing and analyzing the major tests facing deliberative democracy: cultural pluralism, social inequalities, social complexity, and community-wide biases and ideologies. The result is a new understanding of the ways in which public deliberation can be extended to meet the needs of modern societies.