Discourse, Deliberation, and Democracy
F06
Ronald Cohen
Most conceptions of democracy involve more than merely registering preferences. They suggest that citizens deliberate about issues they consider important by talking with others. Some of this talk occurs in informal settings and without an explicitly political agenda (e.g. conversations in coffee shops or at family gatherings); some occurs in more formal settings explicitly structured for political discussion, (e.g., public debates, political meetings, and community hearings on public policy). Recently, a great deal of attention has been focused on conceptions of democracy that emphasize such deliberation, theories of “deliberative democracy.” Few of these theories examine how citizens actually talk about politics, or avoid doing so, and why. This is what we will do in this course. We will examine theory and research on interpersonal and intergroup discourse, and on formal and informal deliberation. Students will read and analyze this work critically, and formulate and conduct original research.