Deliberacja - czyli na czym polega istota demokracji deliberatywnej
Deliberation, or, what does the essence of deliberative democracy involve?

Summary/Abstract: This article, by the nature of things, and given its subject matter and wording, has no ambition to contribute to the theory of democracy, but attempts to establish the features of the deliberative process on political grounds, of its constituent parts and of the circumstances that condition it. The springboard for these considerations is the etymological and linguistic meaning of the word 'deliberation', which then takes the author to a scientific, in the political sciences sense of the term, understanding, as well as to the establishment of the fundamental differences between deliberation and such concepts as discussion and debate. This reflection is carried out within the context of the primary conceptualisations of deliberative democracy and, in particular, of its key elements, such as an initial lack of accord, reasoning, consensus, the decision, its implementation and its legitimisation. The text also incorporates a short reference to criticism expressed against the notion of deliberative democracy. In conclusion, the author gives voice to a recommendation that normativists and empiricists engage in a more intensive dialogue in order to make good the shortfall in scholarly literature focussing on deliberative democracy, while studies on deliberation, particularly in its empirical aspect, should cease to home in primarily on deliberations between citizens and instead subject both the deliberative process among the political elite and citizen/political elite deliberations to much harsher scrutiny.

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