Deliberative Democracy and its Discontents

Drawing on political, legal, national, post-national, as well as American and European perspectives, this collection of essays offers a diverse and balanced discussion of the current arguments concerning deliberative democracy. Its contributions' focus on discontent, provide a critical assessment of the benefits of deliberation and also respond to the strongest criticisms of the idea of democratic deliberation. The essays consider the three basic questions of why, how and where to deliberate democratically. This book will be of value not only to political and democratic theorists, but also to legal philosophers and constitutional theorists, and all those interested in the legitimacy of decision-making in national and post-national pluralistic polities. Contents: Introduction, Samantha Besson and José Luis Martí. Part I Why Deliberate: Is the ideal of a deliberative democracy coherent?, Cristina Lafont; The epistemic conception of deliberative democracy defended - reasons, rightness and equal political autonomy, José Luis Martí; The value added by theories of deliberative democracy: where (not) to look, Andreas Follesdal. Part II How to Deliberate: Democracy and the real speech situation, David Estlund; Depoliticizing democracy, Philip Pettit; Conflict and self-interest in deliberation, Jane Mansbridge; Framing public deliberation and democratic legitimacy in the European Union, Deirdre Curtin. Part III Where to Deliberate: The people in deliberative democracy, Francis Cheneval; Deliberative demoi-cracy in the European Union - towards the deterritorialization of democracy, Samantha Besson; Institutional reform and democratic legitimacy: deliberative democracy and transnational constitutionalism, James Bohman; Should deliberative democrats defend the judicial enforcement of social rights?, Roberto Gargarella. Index.