Deliberative Democracy midterm report
M976020018 政碩一 賴亭伊
From Representative Democracy to
Deliberative Democracy: the evolution and
difficulty
Research motivation
As we know about the theory by Rousseau and Locke: man’s nature right. The sense of democracy is generally thought that every citizen is equal, fair, and has their rights. Further, the democracy could be extended to some different branch. For instance, there are participatory democracy, representative democracy, and deliberative democracy.
After reading the article: “How Possible Is It to Cultivate Deliberative Democracy in Our Daily Life? An Examination of the Gap between Theoretical Expectation and Empirical Reality”, written by 劉正山, I am curious about the difference and problem between deliberative democracy and representative democracy.
In that article, it mentions about the participatory democracy and deliberative democracy, and the difficulty of practicing deliberative democracy. As knowing that the ideal form of deliberative democracy, I found out that the representative democracy practices
Deliberative Democracy midterm report
much more in our society. For instance the legislator yuan is the typical representative democracy form. Since deliberative and representative democracy both are participatory democracy, why does representative democracy practice much? Is it better then deliberative democracy? The author mentions “the will of all” doesn’t equal to the “general will”, so the representative democracy isn’t completely equal to the participatory democracy. Therefore, I am wondering that the difference between them.
Research propose
In this article, I am going to definite the two kinds of democracies, compare them, and discriminate the advantages and defects objectively. Furthermore, I want to analyze the methods and obstacles to practice the deliberative democracy.
As the theory is so ideal, could the deliberative democracy could fulfill the participatory democracy, even replace the representative democracy? Therefore, when comparing the two democracies, I would focus on deliberative democracy by viewing the representative democracy.
In addition, when discussing the limitation of deliberative democracy, another idea that I want to emphasize, is the inter-constructed relationship between political efficacy, deliberative democracy, and education. Although the deliberative has much of ideal form and pre-condition, I think it also needs people’s voluntary and active. Because deliberative democracy is a down-up activity, so the people should participate by their free wills. Deliberative
Deliberative Democracy midterm report
democracy heighten people’s political efficacy, contrary, high political efficacy makes people intend to participate deliberation. This becomes a circulation that two elements infect each other.
On the other hand, the people’s voluntary is required, which fostered by education. So the education is also contained into the circulation.
Research method
This article would be researched by using the quality method. It would apply to the “literature analysis”. Reviewing and defining the theories separately, and linking up the connections. Consequently, make a conclusion that I found.
As the following, there are the articles and books that I am going to study for the research. Some of them are the papers we have read this semester.
“Five Arguments for Deliberative Democracy”
“Participatory Democracy, Representative Democracy, and the Nature of Diffuse and Concentrated”
“The Participatory Consequences of Internal and External Political Efficacy: A Research Note”
“Volunteer Participation in Context: Motivations and Political Efficacy Within Three AIDS
Organizations1”
“The relationship between political efficacy and citizen participation: Construct validation studies”
Deliberative Democracy midterm report
“The limits of political efficacy: Educating citizens for a democratic society”
“Deliberation, democratic decision-making and internal political efficacy”
“Political Participation, Political Efficacy, and Socialization in Germany”
Representative Democracy edited by Nadia Urbinati Democracy and its critics edited by Robert A. Dahl
Debating Deliberative Democracy edited by James S. Fishin and
Peter Laslett
