Deliberative and Democratic Qualities in the Public Sphere. a Comparative Study of Transition Initiatives in Italy and Australia
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DELIBERATIVE AND DEMOCRATIC QUALITIES IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE. A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF TRANSITION INITIATIVES IN ITALY AND AUSTRALIA Andrea Felicetti A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of The Australian National University February 2014 Declaration This thesis is the author’s original work, material from other persons has been acknowledged in the text. There is no content that has been submitted for any other degree or diploma. Andrea Felicetti Date I Acknowledgements To begin with I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to John Dryzek. Were it not for him I would not have embarked on this journey and enjoyed it as I have. He has also been the most exquisite mentor I have ever had. If I have grasped a hint of his intellectual mastery and a dash of his kindness than this already has been a most rewarding experience. I would also like to sincerely thank the other members of my supervisory panel: Carolyn Hendriks, David Marsh, and Simon Niemeyer. Together with John Dryzek they have provided me with exceptional supervision. Carolyn Hendriks has readily given me thorough academic feedback every time I needed it, and I am especially grateful for the help she gave me even while she was on leave. David Marsh has been extraordinarily supportive and his experienced guidance has been beneficial for me academically and personally. Finally, I have been very lucky for the time I have spent with Simon Niemeyer and I can confidently say that engaging with such a brilliant and gentle academic has been deeply enriching. I have also received invaluable support from distinguished scholars abroad. I am particularly grateful to John Parkinson, who received me with exceptional kindness at Warwick University, and Daniela Giannetti, whom once more supported me (as she has always done since my Masters studies), this time during my staying at University of Bologna. These two visits, as well as conferences and workshops I attended in Australia, Sweden, France, Finland, and Italy have been extremely important for developing the ideas in my thesis. I would like also to thank Stephen Weatherford and John Gastil, without whom I probably would not be here studying democracy, and John Barry who first talked to me about the interesting case of a movement known as Transition. Transition participants have welcomed me very kindly every time I have approached the movement. After spending so much time thinking about Transition it is clear that I have received from the movement so much more than I could possibly give back. It is important for me to acknowledge in this page the passionate and generous work of the people I met in Meander Valley, Brisbane, Monteveglio and Modica. Without them this research would not have been possible and spending time in each of these wonderful communities has been an extraordinary experience. Coming back to Canberra, I would like to acknowledge the efforts of so many people who create the enviable working conditions I have enjoyed while at the School of Politics and International Relations. The Australian National University has been an incredible learning environment and being part of this institution has been a privilege. III Whilst it would be arduous to name all the wonderful scholars that I have had occasion to meet at the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance I would like to thank each and every one of them. Nicole Curato and Beibei Tang deserve a special mention as they have been there to support me from beginning to end. Being part of a wonderful community as the one at the Centre has been beautiful and incredibly enriching. Selen Ercan Ayirtman and Susan Marsh have been extraordinarily important to me as engaging fellow scholars and caring friends, and I am grateful to them for being so good with me. With great kindness Laurence Vichie has patiently listened to my daily thoughts and I thank him for his great company and help. I shall also thank Anne Looker for her valuable support with editing. I am thankful to my friends at home, all over the world and here in Australia, every chat we have had together has helped me greatly throughout this journey. Let me finish by thanking my family: my father Gianni, my mother Gisella, Maria Assunta and Stefano, Marilena and Maurizio and of course my wonderful nephew Lorenzo. Great distance may inflict some discomfort, yet every single time I have talked to you rather than making me feel the burden you lightened me. I am grateful to Sasha, who has been incredibly helpful and supportive as I sought to finish this work. She has been close to me as no one else, to her goes all of my love. IV Citizen deliberation is a fundamental concern for deliberative theories of democracy. Early deliberative theorists tied the prospects for a democratic society to the possibility of realising democratic deliberation within publics at large, not just institutions. Nonetheless, circumscribed citizens’ or representatives’ assemblies have often been identified as the very loci where democratic deliberation could be pursued, whilst the possibility of deliberation within the public sphere has been neglected. The empirical investigation of the deliberative and democratic qualities in the public sphere remains necessary, as well as an understanding of what aspects may hinder or foster quality discursive engagement. The increasingly advocated systemic approach to deliberative democracy calls for a refined understanding of organisations in the public sphere. This study provides an investigation of the qualities of citizens’ engagement from a deliberative democratic standpoint. The key concept through which such qualities are investigated is ‘deliberative capacity’, which is seen in terms of the extent to which organisations host authentic, inclusive, and consequential discursive processes. This work, in particular, is based on a comparative study of four grassroots local initiatives, two from Australia (in Tasmania and Queensland) and two from Italy (in Emilia-Romagna and Sicily). The case studies under examination are associated with Transition, a contemporary movement fighting peak oil and resource depletion through the development of community-level activism. In the initial part, this work discusses the idea of deliberative capacity in light of the wider debates in the field and adapts this concept to suit the empirical investigation of organisations in the public space. Next, the interpretive and qualitative research methodology and relevant literature are presented. Social movement scholarship emerges as the area which has most closely investigated the issues under examination in this work and therefore it receives particular attention throughout the text. The Transition movement is then introduced. After presenting the main features of the movement, Transition is examined through social movement literature and framed within deliberative democratic theory. Four case studies are thus developed. Each of them provides an in-depth understanding and an assessment of the discursive processes characterising the various activities taking place. The ensuing comparative analysis sheds light on the overall deliberative and democratic qualities of these organisations and the way in which deliberative capacity was developed. This research shows that the deliberative and democratic qualities of community-based organisations vary significantly, from particularly problematic to satisfying. In line with earlier studies, the main dynamics accounting for the development of deliberative capacity are found in the interaction of two sets of aspects: the organisations’ internal features and the context surrounding them. Deliberative capacity is generated when participants find that adopting and developing V deliberative and democratic qualities is valuable in itself and necessary in influencing the local publics and institutions. The findings may inform future theoretical advancement, particularly with regard to the role and potential that organisations in the public space may have in deliberative systems. VI Contents Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 1 Chapters Overview .................................................................................................................... 3 Chapter 1 Deliberative Capacity: from Deliberative Theory to Democratic Life ....................... 6 An Introduction to Deliberative Capacity ................................................................................. 6 The Three Dimensions of Deliberative Capacity ....................................................................... 9 Authenticity........................................................................................................................... 9 Inclusivity ............................................................................................................................ 15 Consequentiality ................................................................................................................. 17 Chapter 2 Research Methodology and Relevant Studies ........................................................ 22 Research Methodology ........................................................................................................... 22 Related Studies ....................................................................................................................... 29 Chapter 3 Transition from a Deliberative Democratic Perspective ........................................