Extending Representative Democracy

Representative and participatory democracy are often seen as different, and sometimes incompatible, forms of democracy. It may be, however, that one way of promoting participatory democracy is to extend our understanding of political representation. Deliberative democracy, through the use of mini-publics, and the bringing together of people from different pressure groups and organisations, offers the opportunity both of extending political representation and participation. The paper will consider ways in which representative democracy can be enhanced by deliberative democracy. We will argue that by developing and implementing different forms of political representation, around ideas of political deliberation, political participation can be increased and the legitimacy of representative democracy strengthened.