Finding common ground
Finding common ground
Deliberative democrats have abandoned the ideal of consensus in favour of a range of different, more realistic alternatives. But these alternatives provide little anchorage to guide or even evaluate deliberative practice –something acutely problematic given the contemporary context of accelerating polarization in many advanced liberal democracies. In this paper, we turn to Stalnaker’s account of the ‘common ground’—the shared pool of information that is agreed upon by the parties to a discourse—to reassert a distinct ideal standard for democratic deliberation which remains malleable enough to apply across messy contexts of real-world political contestation and debate. Our account offers an appropriate normative yardstick by which to assess deliberative practices across different discursive contexts, as well as impetus for further experimentation and innovation in efforts towards democratic renewal and reform.
deliberative democracy, consensus, philosophy of language, Stalnaker, common ground
1-20
Morrissey, Lochlan
275fb1d0-b519-4793-86d3-42c0b5bf4844
Boswell, John
34bad0df-3d4d-40ce-948f-65871e3d783c
Morrissey, Lochlan
275fb1d0-b519-4793-86d3-42c0b5bf4844
Boswell, John
34bad0df-3d4d-40ce-948f-65871e3d783c
Abstract
Deliberative democrats have abandoned the ideal of consensus in favour of a range of different, more realistic alternatives. But these alternatives provide little anchorage to guide or even evaluate deliberative practice –something acutely problematic given the contemporary context of accelerating polarization in many advanced liberal democracies. In this paper, we turn to Stalnaker’s account of the ‘common ground’—the shared pool of information that is agreed upon by the parties to a discourse—to reassert a distinct ideal standard for democratic deliberation which remains malleable enough to apply across messy contexts of real-world political contestation and debate. Our account offers an appropriate normative yardstick by which to assess deliberative practices across different discursive contexts, as well as impetus for further experimentation and innovation in efforts towards democratic renewal and reform.
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Common Ground submission Revised final
- Accepted Manuscript
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 1 October 2020
e-pub ahead of print date: 8 December 2020
Keywords:
deliberative democracy, consensus, philosophy of language, Stalnaker, common ground
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 444887
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/444887
ISSN: 1474-8851
PURE UUID: 8e0a537a-248e-432a-b051-8701cbf73e98
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Date deposited: 09 Nov 2020 17:32
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 06:02
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Author:
Lochlan Morrissey
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