Enough of Deliberation Politics Is about Interests and Power

Abstract

Abstract Many of the substantive arguments in Democracy and Disagreement resonate favorably with me, but it should be said that this is not a particularly demanding test. To know how effective Amy Gutmann and Dennis Thompson’s deliberative model would be, either at reducing moral disagreement or at promoting accommodation of irresolvable differences in American politics, one would have to see it in action in debates among pro-lifers and prochoicers, parties to the Mozert v. Hawkim litigation, or protagonists in debates over redistricting, affirmative action, welfare reform, child support, and the other contentious issues that Gutmann and Thompson describe. Their claim is that if the various protagonists “seek fair terms of cooperation for their own sake,” committing themselves to appeal, in their arguments, “to reasons that are recognizably moral in form and mutually acceptable in content,” then disagreements will be minimized and accommodation will be promoted.

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