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Deliberating downstream: countering democratic distortions in the policy process

Deliberating downstream: countering democratic distortions in the policy process
Deliberating downstream: countering democratic distortions in the policy process
Key theorists and scholars of democracy have focused on understanding and enhancing the institutions and practices that shape decision-making. Indeed, the most influential contemporary normative account—the deliberative version—though increasingly adapted to the complex realities of contemporary politics, retains a tight focus on the conditions of legitimate will formation. This remains the core underpinning the normative the impetus for innovation and reform in contemporary democratic politics. Yet missing from even the adapted deliberative account is detailed consideration of what happens after will formation. In this paper, I turn to the policy and administration literature to show how the inescapably attritional and opaque policy process can magnify asymmetries that theorists and scholars of contemporary democracy, chief among them deliberative democrats, ought to be much better attuned to. I argue that in failing to consider these problems adequately, contemporary democratic thinkers, scholars and reformers risk lending legitimacy to institutions and practices that might sustain the very biases they are mobilized against. As such, I identify institutional innovations and governing practices that can embed aspects of democratic deliberation ‘downstream’ in the policy process in order to counter distortions and rebalance asymmetries. I conclude by calling for theorists, researchers and reformers to explore the value of these institutions and practices, and expand the repertoire of governing mechanisms available to counter the distortions that occur through the policy process.
1537-5927
724-737
Boswell, John
34bad0df-3d4d-40ce-948f-65871e3d783c
Boswell, John
34bad0df-3d4d-40ce-948f-65871e3d783c

Boswell, John (2016) Deliberating downstream: countering democratic distortions in the policy process. Perspectives on Politics, 14 (3), 724-737. (doi:10.1017/S1537592716001146).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Key theorists and scholars of democracy have focused on understanding and enhancing the institutions and practices that shape decision-making. Indeed, the most influential contemporary normative account—the deliberative version—though increasingly adapted to the complex realities of contemporary politics, retains a tight focus on the conditions of legitimate will formation. This remains the core underpinning the normative the impetus for innovation and reform in contemporary democratic politics. Yet missing from even the adapted deliberative account is detailed consideration of what happens after will formation. In this paper, I turn to the policy and administration literature to show how the inescapably attritional and opaque policy process can magnify asymmetries that theorists and scholars of contemporary democracy, chief among them deliberative democrats, ought to be much better attuned to. I argue that in failing to consider these problems adequately, contemporary democratic thinkers, scholars and reformers risk lending legitimacy to institutions and practices that might sustain the very biases they are mobilized against. As such, I identify institutional innovations and governing practices that can embed aspects of democratic deliberation ‘downstream’ in the policy process in order to counter distortions and rebalance asymmetries. I conclude by calling for theorists, researchers and reformers to explore the value of these institutions and practices, and expand the repertoire of governing mechanisms available to counter the distortions that occur through the policy process.

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DeliberatingDownstream_PoP_Clean_resubmission21.12.2015.doc - Accepted Manuscript
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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 23 December 2015
e-pub ahead of print date: 31 August 2016
Published date: September 2016
Organisations: Politics & International Relations

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 385561
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/385561
ISSN: 1537-5927
PURE UUID: 31af3a31-8ae1-4fee-9d2b-aa0816c5b91e
ORCID for John Boswell: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-3018-8791

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Date deposited: 20 Jan 2016 14:14
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:48

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