Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Hoffman, David C.

Titel

Review of Three National Issues Forums Issue Guides for Deliberative Forums

Ist Teil von

• Journal of political science education, 2021-10, Vol.17 (4), p.672-677

Ort / Verlag

Abingdon: Routledge

Erscheinungsjahr

2021

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Taylor & Francis Journals Auto-Holdings Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Deliberation is an activity in which decision-makers try to reach a well-reasoned conclusion about what course of action to take to solve a problem or improve a situation. Deliberation has been recognized as an essential process of democracy at least since Aristotle described it as one of the three fundamental genres of civic discourse in his Rhetoric. Over the last twenty-five years, the topic of deliberation has assumed an increasingly important place in political science and political communication. At present, whole conferences (such as the conferences of the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation) and journals (such as the Journal of Public Deliberation) are devoted to the topic, and democratic engagement through deliberation has become a major area for grant-making. There is even a proposal for a national holiday called "deliberation day" that is championed by deliberation researchers Bruce Ackerman and James Fishkin. The topic of deliberation beacons to researchers, scholars, and practitioners because deliberative processes have the promise of getting the practical work of democracy done. The perfection of deliberative techniques has the potential to enable people to effectively participate in making decisions that will affect their lives as members of commercial enterprises, voluntary associations, and community members. But the "perfection" of such techniques is a perennial challenge, for they must be both democratically inclusive and consistently yield good decisions.