Deliberative Politics in Action: Analyzing Parliamentary Discourse

by Jürg Steiner , André Bächtiger , Markus Spörndli , Marco R. Steenbergen

• ISBN13: 9780521535649
• ISBN10: 0521535646
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-02-14
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

'Deliberative politics' refers to the role of conversation and arguments in politics. Until recently discussion of deliberative politics took place almost exclusively among political philosophers, but many questions raised in this philosophical discussion cry out for empirical investigation. This book provides the first extended empirical study of deliberative politics, addressing, in particular, questions of the preconditions and consequences of high level deliberation. Using parliamentary debates in Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States as an empirical base, the authors measure the level of deliberation by constructing a 'Discourse Quality Index'. As deliberative politics moves to the forefront of political theory, this book makes an important contribution to deliberative democracy.

Author Biography

Marco R. Steenbergen is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vi
Introduction: The research questions	1	(7)
1 Institutions and behavior: the example of consociational theory	8	(8)
2 The philosophical literature on deliberative politics	16	(27)
3 Measuring deliberation: a Discourse Quality Index	43	(31)
4 Understanding the real world of deliberation: hypotheses about antecedents and consequences	74	(24)
5 Antecedents of deliberation: institutions and issues	98	(40)
6 Discourse and its consequences	138	(27)
Conclusion and research outlook	165	(5)
Appendix: Discourse Quality Index (DQI): instructions for coders	170	(10)
References	180	(14)
Index	194