Why deliberative governance?

Deliberative democracy has been the dominant theme in democratic theory since around 1990 (though its ancestry goes back at least to Ancient Greece). It is also the name of a worldwide movement for political reform, directed at the formal institutions of government, innovative citizen forums, stakeholder dialogues across partisans, and the more informal processes of the public sphere (including old and new media). Deliberation for its part entails communication that is non-coercive, capable of connecting expressions of particular interests or positions to more general principles, induces reflection on the part of those both speaking and hearing, in which participants strive to make sense to those who do not share their own conceptual framework.

Those who advance deliberative democracy in theory and practice often do so because they believe that it embodies ideals intrinsic to good democracy; the core claim concerns legitimacy, achieved to the degree those affected by a collective decision have the right, opportunity, and capacity to participate (or be represented) in consequential deliberation about the content of that decision. Many proponents also believe that deliberative democracy has salutary effects when it comes to solving collective problems, and it is this governance dimension that concerns us here. We will ask whether deliberation can help when it comes to the global governance of climate change – and answer this question in the affirmative.