Reason, Passion and Participation: Paradoxes of Deliberative Democracy

Authors : Yunus SÖZEN

Pages : 47-64

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Publication Date : 2016-05-20

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :Deliberative democrats` understanding of democracy includes both participation and discussions before making collective decisions. However, there is a tension between the particular ways they conceptualize participation insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(as extensive and active); and public discussions insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(as deliberations under the precepts of public reason);. This paper challenges the feasibility of deliberative democracy in the following ways: 1); by demonstrating the inability of deliberative democrats to provide a convincing account of why their conceptualizations of participation and deliberation should occur simultaneously; 2); by delineating, through historical and theoretical evidence, that what should reasonably be expected to occur simultaneously with active and extensive participation is not reason governed, but passion-driven public deliberations; and, 3); by arguing that these two aspects insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(extensive participation and public reason); may have adverse eects on each other.
Keywords : Deliberative democracy, Passions, Public Reason, Participation