...deliberation often stultifies or corrupts us, that it often exacerbates our biases and leads to greater conflict.
Like Matt_Lerner, I wonder how you selected what evidence to cite, and whether the side that is more sceptical of deliberative democracy got a fair hearing.
With regards to this statement:
Empirical research shows that both politicians and average citizens have the capacity to deliberate when institutions are appropriate.
That seems to depend on what standards you have for “capacity to deliberate”. At one point you use the phrase “rigorous analytic reasoning”, and depending on what cut-off point one has for that, one might argue that capacity for such reasoning isn’t that common.
A recent Swedish paper showed that politicians are “on average significantly smarter and better leaders than the population they represent”. To the extent that that is true, politicians may be better at deliberating than the general public. I haven’t looked at other countries, however.
Thanks for the useful comments and the recommendation of the Jason Brennan book.
I’ve looked through the evidence on deliberation he cites as being more damning than people realize. He relies mostly on a review from 2002 (Mendelberg). There have been a number of reviews of evidence since then which this essay also draws upon.
Brennan’s main issues also relate not to the main decision-making improvements of concern here (e.g. opinion change and knowledge gain) but mostly about who is included and whether this fosters an engaged civil society. He is also more warm towards Deliberative Polling specifically and acknowledges further research could win him over (page 66 of his book). Arguably we now have a lot more of such evidence.
With further regard to a fairer hearing/study selection I have made a direct reply on Matt_Lerner’s comment/ updated the text to include more counter arguments.
Thanks for that Dal Bó et al. paper recommendation. It doesn’t seem to me to follow that even if politicians are “smarter and better leaders” it should make them better deliberators also. Even if this is true that politicians are likely to be “better” than citizens in this regard, I think the reasons mentioned to be sceptical of proposals for deliberative reforms of existing bodies make this seem somewhat less attractive than citizen bodies that might still be good deliberators.
I’m not an expert, but my impression is that some experts are more critical of deliberative democracy. For instance, Jason Brennan argued in his recent book Against Democracy that:
Like Matt_Lerner, I wonder how you selected what evidence to cite, and whether the side that is more sceptical of deliberative democracy got a fair hearing.
With regards to this statement:
That seems to depend on what standards you have for “capacity to deliberate”. At one point you use the phrase “rigorous analytic reasoning”, and depending on what cut-off point one has for that, one might argue that capacity for such reasoning isn’t that common.
A recent Swedish paper showed that politicians are “on average significantly smarter and better leaders than the population they represent”. To the extent that that is true, politicians may be better at deliberating than the general public. I haven’t looked at other countries, however.
Thanks for the useful comments and the recommendation of the Jason Brennan book.
I’ve looked through the evidence on deliberation he cites as being more damning than people realize. He relies mostly on a review from 2002 (Mendelberg). There have been a number of reviews of evidence since then which this essay also draws upon. Brennan’s main issues also relate not to the main decision-making improvements of concern here (e.g. opinion change and knowledge gain) but mostly about who is included and whether this fosters an engaged civil society. He is also more warm towards Deliberative Polling specifically and acknowledges further research could win him over (page 66 of his book). Arguably we now have a lot more of such evidence.
With further regard to a fairer hearing/study selection I have made a direct reply on Matt_Lerner’s comment/ updated the text to include more counter arguments.
Thanks for that Dal Bó et al. paper recommendation. It doesn’t seem to me to follow that even if politicians are “smarter and better leaders” it should make them better deliberators also. Even if this is true that politicians are likely to be “better” than citizens in this regard, I think the reasons mentioned to be sceptical of proposals for deliberative reforms of existing bodies make this seem somewhat less attractive than citizen bodies that might still be good deliberators.
Thanks for your response!