Deliberation as Discussion
If one begins with “deliberative democracy,” one is immediately drawn toward trying to define the term, and hence into arguments about how precisely it should be understood. While such arguments can be enlightening and are surely unavoidable for anyone interested in the subject, I will try a different approach here, one that bypasses the problem of deciding what should count as deliberation and deliberative democracy. Instead, I will consider the following question. What good reasons might a group of people have for discussing matters before making some collective decision, rather than simply voting on the issue or using some other decision rule that does not involve discussion? In other words, what is the point or value of discussing things before making political decisions?