Democratic Deliberation, Social Movements and the Quest for Democratic Politics

• Published in: Partecipazione e conflitto 2018-01, Vol.11 (1), p.261-268
• Main Authors: Donatella della Porta, Felicetti, Andrea
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Decision making; Democracy; Policy making; Political participation; Politics; Social activism; Social movements
• ISSN: 1972-7623; 2035-6609
• DOI: 10.1285/i20356609v11i1p261

Luigi Bobbio has devoted a large part of his research to the study and promotion of democracy. In particular, his thoughtful analysis of the potential for democratic deliberation to improve politics has contributed to a variety of democratic debates in Italy and abroad. Also in his latest paper, Luigi engaged in an important debate on whether public deliberation makes decision making more or less political (Bobbio 2017). As he argues, deliberative assemblies actually provide a “third way”, a grey area, between political and unpolitical engagement. Right because of its hybrid nature, the third, deliberative way actually improves policy-making. In developing his argument, building upon Hay’s work, he highlights that even if deliberative assemblies shift the location of decision-making, they leave however unaltered the content of issues under examination (Hay 2007). The essentially political nature of some issues is not lost, even when decision making and deliberation about it occurs at a distance from governmental locations. In this short article, aiming at complementing his work, we look at the same question, but from a different perspective. That is, rather than asking whether the introduction of deliberative arenas makes democratic engagement more or less political, we reflect on whether the introduction of deliberative arenas makes political engagement more or less democratic. Specifically, we look at how deliberative assemblies might contribute to (or hinder) the pursuit of deliberative and participatory democratic values as articulated by contemporary social movements (another focus of attention in Luigi’s work).