The Micropolitics of Deliberation and its Macropolitical Consequences in Deliberative Systems

Abstract

This panel deals with research at the interface between interpersonal deliberation and the wider system. It incorporates papers concerning the micro politics of deliberation and the future directions considering recent developments in the systemic turn in deliberative democratic theory. The papers demonstrate the need to resist a purely macro political view of deliberative democracy and the utility of adopting systems thinking that accounts for processes and capacities that operate at the level of citizens. Owen and Smith (2014), for example, have asserted that there remains a need to conceptualise an individual deliberative capacity within the system, which they articulate via the concept of the deliberative stance. This panel will expand on these themes and explore avenues for developing knowledge in the micro political arena, as well as the implications for macro political and deliberative systems thinking.