Citizen and experts in policy deliberation

Abstract

This chapter examines deliberative democratic theory and various deliberative experiments that can inform it. It illustrates how these efforts pose questions of expertise and complexity that have yet to be adequately taken into account. Deliberative democratic theory, largely abstract and impractical, has mainly neglected — if not ignored — these problems and their implications. At the same time, a parallel body of experimental research is shown to have usefully worked out practical deliberative designs. While these contributions generally recognize the need for expertise, they too have failed to move beyond the standard understandings of expertise which has long hindered citizen participation. Emphasizing the expert-citizen relationship, the discussion points to the need to bring both of these theoretical and practical pursuits together in a more fruitful interaction.