Democracy Today.indb - Universidade do Minho

That does not mean we should reject “deliberative democracy” – it
means we should recognize that this model places limits on what can
be achieved regarding other attributes of democracy. Such conflicts are
not peculiar to deliberation as distinct from other core democratic virtues.
Costs and tensions cannot be disqualifying, or else there would be no
acceptable model of democracy. Instead we consider the advantages
and problems of different models, and this means normative debate
about which attributes of democracy we should emphasize and why.
There are many tensions among the main democratic virtues. For
example, the commitment to agenda control, as an egalitarian project,
means that the choice of subjects for more extensive political attention
will be closely tied to the expressed preferences of individuals. This
commitment, if put into practice at high levels, is apt to constrain
deliberation. People want to shape the agenda to advance their own
issues and claims – this may limit their willingness to engage in an
open-ended process of deliberation with uncertain results. This tension
can be banished if it is stipulated that people want to control
the agenda simply in order to advance what they see as in the public
interest. But this is an implausible account of any actual polity. Thus
a strong commitment to agenda control is apt to limit the space for
deliberation.
If inclusion is taken as a central democratic virtue and it is interpreted
as requiring measures that recognize political and cultural diversity,
we have the basis for a distinctive model of democracy focused on
recognition and on identities. Here conflicts will arise between the drive
for recognition and the commitment to voting equality. An emphasis
on inclusion is likely to mean that minorities will demand electoral
and legal provisions that protect their practices and preferences. Such
provisions usually give more weight to the votes of individuals in the
protected groups than to others, at least on certain issues.
The value of participation defines participatory models of democracy.
At high levels, participation is likely to be in considerable tension
with voting equality. This happens when participatory forms are
given decision making power at the local or regional level. The votes
of those citizens who are heavily engaged in the participatory schemes
will count more than the votes of those citizens who are not similarly
engaged. The most ambitious participatory budgeting schemes, for
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DEMOCRATIC VIRTUES
David Plotke