ABSTRACT
The emergence of a model of deliberative democracy is perhaps one of the most significant recent innovations in democratic theory. Yet this deliberative model of democratic theory has received an ambivalent reception amongst feminist political theorists. Although it appears to some to offer invaluable theoretical resources for engaging with central feminist concerns regarding democratic inclusion, it generates amongst others a profound scepticism concerning its ability to recognize difference. The relation between deliberative democracy and feminist theory is ambivalent, then, not least because feminist theory is itself a contested terrain.
