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Democratizing Deliberation

A Political Theory Anthology

Derek W M Barker

9780923993412
184 pages
Kettering Foundation Press
Overview
Democratizing Deliberation brings together recent and cutting-edge political theory scholarship on deliberative democracy. Edited by Kettering Foundation program officer Derek Barker, Noëlle McAfee, associate professor of philosophy at Emory University and associate editor of the Kettering Review, and Kettering Foundation research associate David McIvor, the collection reframes deliberative democracy to be sensitive to the deep conflicts, multiple forms of communication, and aspirations for civic agency that characterize real public deliberation. In so doing, the book addresses many of the most common challenges to the theory and practice of deliberative democracy. Democratizing Deliberation includes a foreword by David Mathews, president of the Kettering Foundation, and the following essays: “Introduction: Democratizing Deliberation,” Derek W.M. Barker, Noëlle McAfee, and David W. McIvor “Three Models of Democratic Deliberation,” Noëlle McAfee “Rhetoric and Public Reasoning: An Aristotelian Understanding of Political Deliberation,” Bernard Yack “Difference Democracy: The Consciousness-Raising Group Against the Gentlemen’s Club,” John S. Dryzek “Everyday Talk in the Deliberative System,” Jane Mansbridge “De-centering Deliberative Democracy,” Iris Marion Young “Sustaining Public Engagement: Embedded Deliberation in Local Communities,” Elena Fagotto and Archon Fung “Constructive Politics as Public Work: Organizing the Literature,” Harry C. Boyte.

About the Kettering Foundation

The Kettering Foundation is a nonpartisan, nonprofit operating foundation rooted in the American tradition of cooperative research. Kettering’s primary research question is: What does it take to make democracy work as it should? Kettering’s research is distinctive because it is conducted from the perspective of citizens and focuses on what people can do collectively to address problems affecting their lives, their communities, and their nation. For more information about Kettering research and publications, see the Kettering Foundation’s website at www.kettering.org.

Author Bio
Derek W.M. Barker is a political theorist and a program officer at the Kettering Foundation, a nonprofit research organization that studies efforts to strengthen democracy. He is the author of the book Tragedy and Citizenship and has published articles in Polis, Kettering Review, and Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement. Noelle McAfee is an associate professor of philosophy at Emory University, the editor of the Kettering Review, and cochair of the Public Philosophy Network. Her work is at the intersection of subjectivity and public life, drawing widely on various traditions in philosophy and from experiments in self-government around the world. Her most recent book is Democracy and the Political Unconscious (Columbia, 2008). She is currently writing a book on the democratic imaginary. David W. McIvor is a research associate at the Kettering Foundation. He received his PhD in political science from Duke University. In addition to his interests in deliberative democracy, he has research interests in collective memory and public rituals of commemoration. He has published recently in the journal Polity.