Introduction

Dialogue and democracy are terms that bring more confusion than clarity. What unites them are the positive normative connotations associated with both of them. Both democracy and dialogue invoke positive expectations and hopes, and do so even more in their combinations such as dialogic democracy and democratic dialogue. In this volume, however, we put such normative expectations on hold, critically studying the theoretical and empirical intersections between democracy and dialogue. Our departure point is that neither the positive connotations nor the links between democracy and dialogue should be taken for granted, but rather need to be closely investigated. Hence, the non-evident encounters between democracy and dialogue, both on the conceptual and empirical level, are the main subject of this book.