Abstract

LANDEMORE, Hélène  and  MERCIER, Hugo. Talking it out with others vs. deliberation within and the law of group polarization: Some implications of the argumentative theory of reasoning for deliberative democracy. Anál. Social [online]. 2012, n.205, pp.910-934. ISSN 0003-2573.

This paper argues that a new psychological theory-the argumentative theory of reasoning-provides theoretical support for the discursive, dialogical ideal of democratic deliberation. It converges, in particular, with deliberative democrats’ predictions about the positive epistemic properties of talking things out with others. The paper further considers two influential objections to democratic deliberation: first, that “deliberation within” rather than deliberation with others carries most of the burden in terms of changing people’s minds; and second, that the so-called “law of group polarization” casts serious doubts on the value of democratic deliberation and, more generally, the ideal of deliberative democracy.

Keywords : deliberative democracy; argumentative theory of reasoning; epistemic democracy; law of group polarization.

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