Rawls and deliberative democracy

Saward, Michael (2002). Rawls and deliberative democracy. In: Passerin D'Entreves, Maurizio ed. Democracy as Public Deliberation: New Perspectives. Perspectives on Democratization. Manchester, UK, and New York, US: Manchester University Press, pp. 112–130.

Abstract

This chapter offers arguments to support the following conjectures: (1) despite claims by Rawls and some commentators, Rawls is not and cannot be a deliberative democrat; the evidence for this can be gleaned by focussing on various interpretations of the structure of Rawls’ arguments in A Theory of Justice (1972) and Political Liberalism (1993) respectively; and (2) if we ask more directly how the ideal dialogue of the original position might be approximated in real-world conditions, we can reach suggestive conclusions about institutions and deliberative democracy radically different from those reached by Rawls himself.

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