Forging Democratic Connections in the Public Sphere: A Deliberative Appreciation of Alternative Forms of Participation

This paper explores how deliberative democracy can inform democratic reform initiatives in contemporary democracies. It adopts a broader systemic view of public deliberation and considers the opportunities for democratic reform beyond structured forums. A systemic approach to democratic reform provides a variety of benefits that elude forum-based approaches to deliberation. One crucial aspect of the systemic approach is that it starts with and builds on the existing practices of democracy both within and outside of formal institutions of representative democracy. As such, the systemic approach requires first and foremost a better appreciation of existing participatory initiatives to revitalise democracy. In this paper, we consider alternative forms of political participation and their capacity to forge connections in a public sphere characterised by communicative disconnections. The empirical insights drawn from the case of Knitting Nannas Against Gas (a group of women protesting against coal seam gas mining in Australia by using alternative forms of communication and participation) helps us to translate the core aspirations of the deliberative systems approach into a feasible democratic reform program.