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The Democratic Case for Political Uses of Mini-Publics

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The Democratic Case for Political Uses of Mini-Publics Can Democracy be Deliberative & Participatory? The Democratic Case for Political Uses of Mini-Publics Cristina Lafont Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/146/3/85/1830981/daed_a_00449.pdf by guest on 03 October 2021 Abstract: This essay focuses on recent proposals to confer decisional status upon deliberative mini-publics such as citizens’ juries, Deliberative Polls, and citizens’ assemblies. Against such proposals, I argue that in- serting deliberative mini-publics into political decision-making processes would diminish the democratic legitimacy of the political system as a whole. This negative conclusion invites a question: which political uses of mini-publics would yield genuinely democratic improvements? Drawing from a participatory con- ception of deliberative democracy, I propose several uses of mini-publics that could enhance the democratic legitimacy of political decision-making in current societies. There is a difference between a sample of several hundred speaking for the nation and the entire citizenry actually speaking for itself.1 –James Fishkin, The Voice of the People In recent decades, deliberative democracy has be- come increasingly popular.2 One of the reasons for its popularity is that it offers an attractive interpre- tation of the democratic ideal of self-government. CRISTINA LAFONT is Professor of Philosophy at Northwestern Uni- According to the ideal of deliberative democracy, versity. She is the author of Global citizens must justify to one another–based on rea- Governance and Human Rights (2012), sons that everyone can reasonably accept–the co- Heidegger, Language and World-Disclo- ercive policies with which they must comply. To the sure (2000), and The Linguistic Turn extent that citizens can mutually justify the political in Hermeneutic Philosophy (1999) and coercion they exercise over one another, they can see coeditor of The Future of Critical The- themselves as colegislators or political equals in pre- ory: Transforming the Global Political cisely the way the democratic ideal of self-govern- and Economic Order (with Penelope 3 Deutscher, 2017) and the Habermas ment requires. The essential contribution of pub- Handbuch (with Hauke Brunkhorst lic deliberation to democratic legitimacy is that it and Regina Kreide, forthcoming). enables citizens to endorse the laws and policies to © 2017 by Cristina Lafont doi:10.1162/DAED_ a_00449 85 The which they are subject as their own. In the only reaching better outcomes but, above Democratic absence of a commitment to mutual justi- all, convincing those who will be bound by Case for Political fication, citizens cannot meaningfully see them that this is indeed the case by provid- Uses of themselves as participants in collective self- ing mutually acceptable reasons. Therefore, Mini-Publics rule, but instead come to see themselves as improving the quality of deliberation in the coerced into compliance by others. Indeed, processes of opinion and will formation in by adding a requirement of public justifi- which citizens participate is an equally non- cation, the deliberative model provides a negotiable aim for the realization of delib- way in which citizens might prevent po- erative democracy. Institutional proposals litical domination by consolidated major- for realizing deliberative democracy must ities. They can engage in public delibera- be assessed by their promise to enhance Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/146/3/85/1830981/daed_a_00449.pdf by guest on 03 October 2021 tion in order to show that their proposals the democratic legitimacy of the political are supported by better reasons and hold system in which they will be implemented out hope that the force of the better argu- from both the deliberative and the partici- ment may move other citizens to change patory perspective.6 their political preferences.4 The claim that Taking this double criterion as a guide better reasons (and not just a higher num- can be helpful in examining proposals for ber of votes) lend legitimacy to the out- democratic innovation that focus on polit- comes of democratic decisions is crucial to ical uses of deliberative mini-publics, in- the idea of mutual justification as a criteri- cluding citizens’ juries, consensus confer- on of democratic legitimacy, distinguish- ences, Deliberative Polls, and citizens’ as- ing deliberative democracy from other semblies.7 Many deliberative democrats conceptions of democracy. enthusiastically endorse the proliferation The idea of mutual justification helps in of mini-publics as a way to lead current understanding the internal connection be- democratic societies closer to the ideal of tween the different political values essen- a deliberative democracy.8 Some authors tial to deliberative democracy. On the one are more daring than others: among cur- hand, given that the epistemic quality of po- rent proposals there is a split between those litical deliberation has a direct impact on who endorse conferring decisional status the legitimacy of its outcomes, improving on mini-publics directly, so that their rec- the quality of deliberation is a nonnegotia- ommendations would be taken up by the ble aim for the realization of deliberative relevant political authorities without any democracy. The more informed, impartial, need to ask for ratification by the citizenry mutually respectful, and open to counter- (such as through elections or a referen- arguments participants are in deliberation, dum) and those who hesitate to go as far the more likely it is that they will reach sub- as to hand over actual political power (like stantively better political decisions, such as of legislation or constitutional interpreta- those supported by the better reasons. On tion) to mini-publics.9 It is easy to see what the other hand, since the justification of drives the push toward the most ambitious political decisions to those subject to them option. A key reason to favor the institu- has a direct impact on their democratic le- tionalization of deliberative mini-publics gitimacy as well, it is not sufficient that po- is that their recommendations are of better litical decisions be substantively good ac- deliberative quality and thus would lead to cording to someone or other. They must better outcomes. They reflect the delibera- be endorsed by those who will be bound tive transformation of raw, uniformed pub- by them: that is, the citizenry in question.5 lic opinion into considered public opinion. The point of democratic deliberation is not However, if the citizenry must ultimately 86 Dædalus, the Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences accept or reject the mini-publics’ recom- deliberative democracy: namely, their high Cristina mendations, and (as may often be the case) deliberative quality and their democratic Lafont they are not aware of the mini-publics’ de- representativeness. Deliberative mini-pub- liberations or reasons, then the decision lics provide a space for high-quality face- will in fact be based on their raw, uniformed to-face deliberation in which participants opinions, canceling out the potential gains receive balanced information on some im- of using mini-publics. If giving mini-pub- portant political issue, are exposed to a vari- lics some decisional status is normatively ety of relevant social perspectives, and have desirable at all, then they should be allowed the opportunity to weigh the pro and con to make the decisions in question. There arguments in order to reach a considered does not seem to be a lot of space for hesi- judgment. Participants are randomly select- Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/daed/article-pdf/146/3/85/1830981/daed_a_00449.pdf by guest on 03 October 2021 tation at that point. ed among ordinary citizens and, as a conse- In light of the general enthusiasm among quence, their initial raw opinions on the is- deliberative democrats about the potential sues in question can be quite uninformed, benefits of inserting mini-publics in the po- perhaps even biased or manipulated. How- litical process, it is becoming increasingly ever, the filter provided by the deliberative harder to see the motivations of those who experience enables them to reach consid- hesitate. In what follows, I would like to ered judgments on the issues in question. contribute to this debate by offering some In fact, their views are often significantly arguments from the other side. First, adopt- transformed. Thus, it is plausible to assume ing a participatory perspective, I argue that, that inserting mini-publics into the politi- whatever the benefits of conferring deci- cal process would lead to substantively bet- sional status on mini-publics may be, they ter outcomes. Still, quality deliberation has are unrelated to democratization. Whether nothing to do with democracy per se. It is or not they would increase the deliberative the representativeness of mini-publics that quality of the political system as a whole, makes them democratically significant, as they would diminish their democratic le- compared with other deliberative forums. gitimacy.10 However, the point of the argu- Participants in mini-publics are randomly ment is not to reject the use of mini-pub- selected among ordinary citizens precisely lics altogether or to claim that they cannot with the purpose of getting a representative genuinely contribute to democratization. sample of the population. Although differ- To the contrary, showing that conferring ent types of mini-publics reach that goal to decisional status on mini-publics would different degrees, I will focus on Delibera- not be a democratic improvement is only a tive Polls, since it is generally considered the first step in addressing the question of when gold standard in terms of achieving repre- and how mini-publics could be used to lead sentativeness.11 to such improvement. I address this ques- As with all other types of mini-publics, tion in a second step by exploring different the idea behind Deliberative Polling is to uses of mini-publics that could improve the take a relatively small group, which every- democratic legitimacy of current societies.
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