Deliberative systems theory and activism. Issue 6 (19th September 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Cross, Ben
• Is Part Of: Critical review of international social and political philosophy. Volume 24:Issue 6(2021)
• Page Start: 866
• Page End: 883
• Publication Date: 2021-09-19
• Subjects: Deliberative democracy -- deliberative system -- activism; Political science -- Philosophy -- Periodicals; Policy sciences -- Philosophy -- Periodicals; Social sciences -- Philosophy -- Periodicals; 320.01
• DOI: 10.1080/13698230.2019.1584842
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1369-8230

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Many have argued that deliberative democracy has, at best, an uncomfortable relationship with activism. It might be thought that deliberative democracy faces an inescapable dilemma: either restrict activist conduct in ways that might exacerbate real-world injustices, or restrict its normative claims to the realm of ideal theory, making it largely irrelevant to the real world. The idea of a deliberative system, however, may seem capable of handling this dilemma. By focusing on the quality of deliberation at the macro-level, deliberative systems theory (DST) does not require that activists must rely exclusively, or even primarily on deliberation. Additionally, DST suggests a kind of deliberative criteria according to which activist conduct can be assessed in the here and now. In this article, I assess the extent to which DST really is able to avoid this dilemma. I do not think it is impossible for DST to do so; however, I argue that it can avoid the dilemma by presupposing a broadly optimistic picture of the world. If we reject this picture, the relevance of DST and deliberative democratic theory in general for activists will be severely limited.