ABSTRACT
Democracy requires deliberation for at least three reasons. First, discussing public issues helps citizens to form opinions—on matters ranging from HMO regulation to global warming—where they might otherwise have none. Second, deliberation offers democratic leaders better insight into public concerns than elections do. Third, public deliberation offers a way—perhaps the only acceptable way— of getting people to justify their views so that we can sort out the better from the worse. "Deliberative democracy" often implies a lofty, informed, serious, fair, productive, and ceaseless conversation among all citizens—in other words, a fantasy. Public journalists resist stories about the political "horse race" in favor of articles about issues. Major institutions in civil society that care about the health of our democracy should make internal changes so that they do more to cultivate deliberation. Proponents of "deliberative democracy" have argued persuasively that democracies benefit when there is broad discussion of public affairs.
