Beyond the Deliberative Hegemony: Whatever Happened to Participatory Democracy?

Abstract

Deliberative democracy has established an almost hegemonic hold on democratic theory and the analysis of participatory governance. The recent emergence of theories of deliberative systems reinforces this position. But does the dominance of deliberative democracy skew the way we conceptualize and analyze democratic innovations and the democratic system more generally? Whatever happened to theories of participatory democracy and society? In what ways do other theoretical perspectives provide important insights into democratic institutions and systems that are overlooked or underplayed by deliberative democrats? Or can these other perspectives be adequately incorporated within deliberative democratic theory? This panel combines theoretical and applied papers that offer critical engagement with deliberative democracy, exploring the implications of alternative ways of theorizing and analyzing modes of participatory governance.

Title	Details
Theorising a participatory policy system	View Paper Details
How does deprivation affect deliberation? Neighbourhood effects and the dangers of abstraction	View Paper Details
The quest for requisite participation: the deliberative minipublic and its rivals	View Paper Details
Beyond Adversary Democracy Redux: Participatory and Deliberative Democracy in the New England Town Meeting	View Paper Details