Deliberative policy analysis prizes communication of a particular sort amid the disagreement that pervades public policy processes. What role, then, should deliberation play in the policy process? There are several possible answers to this question. These answers include seeing deliberation as:

• 1. a limited input into analysis of the relative merits of policy options;

• 2. a means of resolving conflicts across relevant actors and interests;

• 3. a form of public consultation;

• 4. a unique source of valuable inputs into policy processes; and

• 5. a comprehensive aspiration for whole systems of governance.

I will argue that the first four of these alternatives may have their merits, but also some substantial limitations. These limitations point to the necessity of the fifth alternative, which means that, in the end, deliberative policy analysis has to involve the thoroughgoing analysis, critique and reform of systems of governance. Deliberative inputs into intrinsically non-deliberative processes are of correspondingly limited utility.

Before discussing these five possibilities more systematically, I will say a bit about what deliberation involves, and how it is rooted in the broader idea of deliberative democracy.

Basics

Deliberative policy analysis can be located as part of the ‘argumentative turn’ in policy analysis (Fischer and Forester, 1993; Fischer and Gottweis, 2012). This turn treats public policy making as primarily a matter of communicative practice (as opposed to instrumental calculation or the aggregation and reconciliation of interests). Deliberative policy analysis has a particular set of standards that it can apply to the evaluation of communicative practices. While it is not the only such source of standards, this kind of analysis can draw on a well-developed body of work in deliberative democracy.

Deliberative democracy sees governance in terms of effective, inclusive and transformative communication encompassing citizens and policymakers. The core idea is that the legitimacy of collective decisions rests on the right, capacity and opportunity of those subject to or affected by a decision (or their representatives) to participate in consequential deliberation about the decision.

What, then, is deliberation? The origins of deliberative democracy owe something to philosophical schools of thought that emphasise reason-giving in pursuit of consensus.