Deliberative Democracy: Who Reasons in the Public Square?
Deliberative Democracy: Who Reasons in the Public Square?

Summary/Abstract: This essay avers that public reasoning, by state and non-state actors, is essential to the development of civic culture and nation building in the newly developing or re-emergent democracies of Eastern Europe and Central Asia. General deliberative democracy critiques are pursued here but Aristotle’s Politics and, to a lesser extent, Mill’s On Liberty, are used as focal points for ferreting out who should deliberate, for whom and with what end goals. Questions asked are these: Who deserves to participate in the deliberative processes of nation building? What role should the public, especially women and political minorities, play as public deliberators? Are there frequent openings that encourage sincere and comprehensive discussion of extant material, social and political inequalities? I am proposing that there must be a tension filled but genuine communicative action movement at all levels of society — public and private. In this way resocialization (and public opinion makers) become central to the struggle for nation building.

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