Deliberation, Unity, and Democracy Sample Clauses

Deliberation, Unity, and Democracy. In Chapter One, I outlined Young’s critique of the liberal conception of the subject and its use by aggregative or interest-based theories of democracy and by deliberative democracy theorists. Deliberative democracy theorists understand democracy as, “A process that creates a public, citizens coming together to talk about collective problems, goals, ideals and actions. Democratic processes are oriented around discussing this common good rather than competing for the promotion of the private good of each.” 368 Although she prefers deliberative democracy theory to the interest-based theories that understand democracy as just a method of aggregating 368 Intersecting Voices, p. 61. the interests of separate individuals, Young takes issue with several aspects of deliberative democracy theory, namely: “Its tendency to restrict democratic discussion to argument carries implicit cultural biases that can lead to exclusions in practice. Its assumption that unity is either a starting point or goal of democratic discussion, moreover, may have exclusionary consequences.” 369 I will take these two objections to be 1. an objection to the restriction of democratic communication to ‘reasoned’ argument, and 2. a rejection of the idea of unity as the end of democratic communication, and a rejection of the notion that there is some good common to all in the state. Both of Young’s objections to these elements of deliberative democracy theories are important. If we really want to empower people, and we wish to do so through democratic institutions, then the way we organize and understand these political institutions matters. If requiring a certain style of speech or hoping for unity really will exclude and disempower those we are trying to include and to help, then we need to revise our democratic vision. The deliberative democratic requirement that reasoned argument be the basis of democratic deliberation has innocuous enough origins; it is meant to restrict the kind of manipulative speech that can sway political discussions but which is without merit. The restriction to reasoned argument is meant to be egalitarian. 370 Since each has reason, they can each forward their own proposals and understand those of the others. They can reach a conclusion based on the merits of each position. The restriction to argument is meant to make deliberations fairer and to exclude coercion. However, Young argues that this view of reasoned argument imports cultural biases which work to exclude t...