The Gray Area with Sean Illing takes a philosophy-minded look at culture, technology, politics, and the world of ideas. Each week, we invite a guest to explore a question or topic that matters. From the the state of democracy, to the struggle with depression and anxiety, to the nature of identity in the digital age, each episode looks for nuance and honesty in the most important conversations of our time. New episodes drop every Monday.
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episode 238: What deliberative democracy can, and can’t, do (with Jane Mansbridge)
Every time I do an episode on polarization, I get a few emails asking: What about deliberative democracy? Couldn’t that be an answer?
Deliberative democracy, if you’re not familiar, refers to a broad set of approaches in which citizens get together, with or without their representatives, to deliberate on political questions. Not just vote, or donate money, but actually work through hard questions, in a structured process, together.
Jane Mansbridge is the Charles F. Adams professor of political leadership and democratic values at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, a past president of the American Political Science Association, and co-editor of the book, Deliberative Systems: Deliberative Democracy at the Large Scale. So she’s not just a pioneering theorist on deliberative democracy, she’s specifically studied the question where I’m most skeptical: Can it scale?
Book recommendations:
Politics with the People: Building a Directly Representative Democracy by Michael A. Neblo
Democracy When the People Are Thinking: Revitalizing Our Politics Through Public Deliberation by James S. Fishkin
Insecure Majorities: Congress and the Perpetual Campaign by Frances E. Lee
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