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Democracies are in peril when the people don't have the personal and material resources necessary to be engaged.

   

A deliberation is a discussion aimed at producing reasonable, well-informed opinions in which participants are willing to revise preferences in light of discussion, new information, and claims made by fellow participants.

   

Legitimate governments and legitimate laws are the ones who are the results of deliberation procedures.

   

A jury in a criminal trial is the best example of a public deliberation.

   

So how is it going? Is DDM moving on?

Sorry for my absence: Had really much to do.

One more Question: Is DDM like a consensus? Everybody gets only some parts of what they really want but no one is fully satisfied?

   

Nice to hear from you Congio!

For now, DDM is not showing any visible fruits yet but it is growing its subterranean roots.

Deliberations are much more than negotiations to reach compromises. Deliberation is a process to search, extract and exploit the unifying or universalizing potential that exists in any dialogue.

   

It is not simply an act of faith to think this potential is real. The reason to think it has being given by Charles Sanders Peirce:



http://www.iep.utm.edu/p/PeirceBi.htm

   

Although we often expect them to, governments can't make and sustain tough decisions on issues that we as citizens are unwilling to make or support. Only a public can do these things.

Moreover, democratic governments need broad public support if they are to act consistently over the long term. Their foundations are in the common ground for action that only citizens can create.

Politicians often face situations in which the nature of the problem is unclear, the goals of the public aren't defined, or values are at issue and conflict has gotten out of hand.

On major issues, it can take a decade or more to change policy. The role of deliberation is to keep that long journey on track and out of unproductive complaining and blaming.

And governments — even the most powerful — cannot generate the public will needed for effective political action. Governments can command obedience but they cannot create will.

Finally, it is up to us as members of a public to transform private individuals into citizens, people who are political actors. Citizens can create governments but governments can't create citizens.


http://www.kettering.org/stream_documen ... 7&typeID=8

   

"governments can't create citizens"

At least it should be that way... Look >>> Soviet Union.

Is there any DDM forum or something? I would to check it out.

   

Deliberative Drift: The emergence of deliberation in a non-deliberative setting.

The literature on deliberative democracy has tended to focus upon practices taking place in specifically deliberative settings. We can also ask ourselves whether deliberation cannot logically occur elsewhere in the policy process, or, more specifically, can politics based on bargaining and aggregation be transformed (or drift) toward deliberative practice? In pondering this question, Habermas's argument that a communicative rationality underpins deliberation is useful, as it demarcates deliberative from other practices by a willingness of participants to cast aside fixed preferences. While procedures and institutional designs are inflexible, the orientations or rationalities of individuals may be much more malleable.

http://ips.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/29/2/197

   

Deliberative Democracy forges a new relationship between citizens and their government, changing the nature of public discourse to focus on problem solving and a shared search for solutions.

http://www.uoregon.edu/~ddp/

   

I'll be in Montreal this summer. Is there any place I could go to learn more about this?

   

In Montreal, we will do the planning.

   

we have 3 major active parties, the NDP is weak. If another major party emerged with enough clout, we could see a 3 way minority/coalition government. Been to Eastern europe lately?

   

Eee, actually I live in Eastern Europe. I lived in Poland for most of my life, unfortunately. But soon I am moving away. Hope to be in Canada permanently in a year or two.

   

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