The Politics of Public Deliberation: Citizen engagement and interest advocacy

This story illustrates the tensions that can arise between two different models of political communication – those based on deliberative democracy and those based on interest advocacy. Communication under the deliberative model emphasizes public reasoning. Ideally deliberators engage in a social process of mutual justification; informed policy arguments are put forward, justified, and debated in view of collective outcomes. Deliberators are encouraged to listen and be open to the arguments of others, and allow reason to shape their views. The ultimate goal is to make a judgement (whether collective or individual) based on a thorough public consideration of relevant issues and their collective implications. The deliberative model of political communication is institutionalized in various procedures including parliaments, advisory boards, stakeholder committees and designs for public engagement. This book centres on citizens’ forums, which are deliberative processes aimed at collecting policy advice from a group of randomly selected lay citizens.