Deliberative Politics in Action: Analyzing Parliamentary Discourse

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

Overview

Stressing the role of conversation, argument and negotiation in politics, particularly in democratic government, this book offers an empirical study of deliberative politics. Using the 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, characterized by a high inter-coder reliability.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521828710
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	01/13/2005
Series:	Theories of Institutional Design
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	6.22(w) x 9.29(h) x 0.94(d)

About the Author

Jürg Steiner is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and at the University of Bern. He is also Swiss Chair at the European University Institute in Florence.

André Bächtiger is Swiss Chair Fellow at the European University Institute, Florence.

Markus Spörndli is at the University of Bern, Switzerland.

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

Table of Contents

Introduction: the research questions; 1. Institutions and behaviour: the example of consociational theory; 2. The philosophical literature on deliberative politics; 3. Measuring deliberation: a Discourse Quality Index; 4. Understanding the real world of deliberation: hypotheses about antecedents and consequences; 5. The institutional antecedents of discourse; 6. Discourse and its consequences; Conclusion and research outlook; Appendix: Discourse Quality Index (DQI).

Editorial Reviews

"Deliberative democracy is no longer a topic for political theorists only. [The authors] offer 'a helping hand' (p. 42) to the theorists by empirically investigating real-world deliberations...Deliberative Politics in Action contributes some important insights into the institutional conditions of deliberation."
Political Science Quarterly, Christian f. Rostboll, Arizona State University

From the Publisher