Deliberating at a Meso Level: The Role of Public Hearings in a Deliberative System

Focus has more recently moved away from specific deliberative institutions due to the understanding that democratic norms should be located within deliberative systems (Parkinson and Manbridge, 2012). The contention here is that public hearings could make a distinct contribution to a deliberative system by fulfilling a connecting role between centralised and decentralised political structures, as hearings are a ‘hybrid’ form of institution in a number of ways. They combine representative democratic processes with participation; harness the capacity to embody deliberative characteristics within liberal decision-making; and finally they bring representatives, experts, and lay citizens together into deliberation in the same space. I argue that public hearings can facilitate an exchange of ideas and information, within - the ‘meso’ level - which narrows the field of discussion while making it more accessible for wider groups of people, enabling them to connect micro and macro level deliberation.