Contending discourses underlie many of the worlds most intractable conflicts, producing misery and violence. This is especially true in the post-9/11 world. However, contending discourses can also open the way to greater dialogue in global civil society and across states and international organizations. This possibility holds even for the most murderous sorts of conflicts in deeply divided societies. In this timely and original book, John Dryzek examines major contemporary conflicts in terms of clashing discourses. Topics covered include the alleged clash of civilizations; societies divided by ethnicity, nationality, or religion; economic globalization versus resistance; plus an in-depth discussion of the 'war on terror'. Dryzek concludes by highlighting the limitations of current neoconservative and cosmopolitan approaches, arguing that only deliberative global politics offers unprecedented new possibilities for democratic engagement in the international system. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of international relations, politics, philosophy, and sociology.

Global institutions are afflicted by severe democratic deficits, while many of the major problems facing the world remain intractable. Against this backdrop, we develop a deliberative approach that puts effective, inclusive, and transformative communication at the heart of global governance. Multilateral negotiations, international organizations and regimes, governance networks, and scientific assessments can be rendered more deliberative and democratic. More thoroughgoing transformations could involve citizens' assemblies, nested forums, transnational mini-publics, crowdsourcing, and a global dissent channel. The deliberative role of global civil society is vital. We show how different institutional and civil society elements can be linked to good effect in a global deliberative system. The capacity of deliberative institutions to revise their own structures and processes means that deliberative global governance is not just a framework but also a reconstructive learning process. A deliberative approach can advance democratic legitimacy and yield progress on global problems such as climate change, violent conflict and poverty.

Deliberative democracy is an embattled political project. It is accused of political naiveté for it only talks about power without taking power. Others, meanwhile, take issue with deliberative democracy’s dominance in the field of democratic theory and practice. An industry of consultants, facilitators, and experts of deliberative forums has grown over the past decades, suggesting that the field has benefited from a broken political system. This book is inspired by these accusations. It argues that deliberative democracy’s tense relationship with power is not a pathology but constitutive of deliberative practice. Deliberative democracy gains relevance when it navigates complex relations of power in modern societies, learns from its mistakes, remains epistemically humble but not politically meek. These arguments are situated in three facets of deliberative democracy—norms, forums, and systems—and concludes by applying these ideas to three of the most pressing issues in contemporary times—post-truth politics, populism, and illiberalism.

Deliberative democracy now dominates the theory, reform, and study of democracy. Working at its cutting edges, Foundations and Frontiers of Deliberative Governance reaches from conceptual underpinnings to the key challenges faced in applications to ever-increasing ranges of problems and issues. Following a survey of the life and times of deliberative democracy, the turns it has taken, and the logic of deliberative systems, contentious foundational issues receive attention. How can deliberative legitimacy be achieved in large-scale societies where face-to-face deliberation is implausible? What can and should representation mean in such systems? What kinds of communication should be valued, and why? How can competing appeals of pluralism and consensus in democratic politics be reconciled? New concepts are developed along the way: discursive legitimacy, discursive representation, systemic tests for rhetoric in democratic communication, and several forms of meta-consensus. Particular forums (be they legislative assemblies or designed mini-publics) have an important place in deliberative democracy, but more important are macro-level deliberative systems that encompass the engagement of discourses in the public sphere as well as formal and informal institutions of governance. Deliberative democracy can be applied fruitfully in areas previously off-limits to democratic theory: networked governance, the democratization of authoritarian states, and global democracy, as well as in new ways to invigorate citizen participation. In these areas and more, deliberative democracy out-performs its competitors.

Seminar paper from the year 2006 in the subject Politics - General and Theories of International Politics, grade: 1,3, Bielefeld University, course: Global Governanance by Global Frameworks, language: English, abstract: In this written homework I will use the term “globalization” to “describe the growth and spread in investment, trade, and production, the introduction of new technology, and the spread of democracy around the world”. (ibid. 2003: 1). It has to be noticed that this economic globalization “would affect not only production, finance, technology, media and fashion, but also the international political system, leading also to a globalization of democracy“ (Archibugi 2004: 438) Here it is important to note, that on the one hand I support the claim that the ideas of democracy are globalized, on the other hand , however, there has to be kept in mind, the constraint that democracy is only global as a formal or structural blueprint. The flexible characteristics and focuses of democracy differ in many ways; therefore it is not possible to state that an all-embracing final democratic model exists. According to Pauly the impact of globalization shortens national capacities so that they become “inefficient regulators of markets that cross their borders, ..” (Pauly 2000: 4) This raises questions about the democratic legitimacy of an increasingly internationally operating government and international institutions with an indefinite and not clearly defined designation of legitimacy caused by a weak democratic proportion on a global level. Additionally one can observe a rapidly growing number of non-state actors and rising influence like TNCs and NGOs. Approaches concerning the processing of these topics are described under the wide field of “global governance”.The theoretical discussion and their discourse offer help to take a look on today’s institutionsand their problems, the role of the state and the possible implementation approaches of theoretical ideas towards a democratic form of global governance. One solution, obviously, would be a transfer of states ́ sovereignty to a regional or global level. I will concentrate on the confrontation of two basic models of democracy beyond the nationstate, the Cosmopolitan Democracy and the Deliberative Democracy. Based on different normative assumptions they have different ideas of how to create a more adequate form of governance. I will present both concepts separately followed by an all-embracing valuation and a conclusion.

Deliberative democracy has been one of the main games in contemporary political theory for two decades, growing enormously in size and importance in political science and many other disciplines. The Oxford Handbook of Deliberative Democracy takes stock of deliberative democracy as a research field, in philosophy, in various research programmes in the social sciences and law, and in political practice around the globe. It provides a concise history of deliberative ideals in political thought and discusses their philosophical origins. The Handbook locates deliberation in political systems with different spaces, publics, and venues, including parliaments, courts, governance networks, protests, mini-publics, old and new media, and everyday talk. It engages with practical applications, mapping deliberation as a reform movement and as a device for conflict resolution, documenting the practice and study of deliberative democracy around the world and in global governance.