In a democracy, citizens can be involved in different ways. While direct democracy gives the people an immediate voice in decisions and representative democracy entails that elected officials make decisions, deliberative democracy involves thorough preparatory work in citizen/deliberative assemblies prior to decisions.
Deliberative democracy is also referred to as dialogue democracy and consensus democracy, according to Wikipedia.no.
In a deliberative democracy, decisions are made after thorough discussions in which a broad range of interests, knowledge, and viewpoints are heard. Citizens, experts, and representatives meet to discuss and weigh arguments before decisions are taken. The purpose goes beyond counting votes and includes carrying out a thoughtful, reflective decision-making process.
When a decision is reached through deliberation, participants have already gained insight into the various consequences of different courses of action. As a result, they are more committed to ensuring implementation of the adopted policy. This creates a natural link between decision and execution, and prevents the vacuum that arises when those who voted for a policy bear no responsibility for carrying it out.
Implementation of democratic decisions—whether made through direct democracy or representative democracy—currently takes place under the auspices of public administration. In the same way, deliberatively adopted decisions would be implemented by the administration under the supervision of the deliberative assembly or delegated to politically governed administrations.
The need for citizen-controlled oversight bodies would be just as great as it is today, where the lack of such bodies constitutes a threat to democracy because politicians and administrators govern without anchoring in the popular will. Just as administrations today implement decisions made by politicians who left office long ago—and are therefore detached from follow-up and control—decisions resulting from deliberative processes will depend on loyal administrations that do not act in an etatist manner.
Read also: The political industry beyond the people’s control
In this short YouTube video, Geoff Pynn at Elgin Community College explains what deliberative democracy is. Deliberation and discussion are the very heart—the foundational pillars—of democracy.
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