Deliberative Systems: Deliberative Democracy at the Large Scale

Theories of Institutional Design

by John Parkinson (Editor), Jane J. Mansbridge (Editor)

'Deliberative democracy' is often dismissed as a set of small-scale, academic experiments. This volume seeks to demonstrate how the deliberative ideal can work as a theory of democracy on a larger scale. It provides a new way of thinking about democratic engagement across the spectrum of political action, from towns and villages to nation states, and from local networks to transnational, even global systems. Written by a team of the world's leading deliberative theorists, Deliberative Systems explains the principles of this new approach, which seeks ways of ensuring that a division of deliberative labour in a system nonetheless meets both deliberative and democratic norms. Rather than simply elaborating the theory, the contributors examine the problems of implementation in a real world of competing norms, competing institutions and competing powerful interests. This pioneering book will inspire an exciting new phase of deliberative research, both theoretical and empirical.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Political Science

208 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 16, 2012

About the author

There is more than one person in the Goodreads catalog with this name. This entry is for John ^3 Parkinson, politics professor.

I am Professor of Politics with a joint appointment in the School of Government and International Relations and the Centre for Governance and Public Policy, Griffith University, in Brisbane, Australia.

My field is applied democratic theory, especially the links between policy processes and wider public experience and debate. I have written on referendum processes around the world, public participation in policy making in the UK’s National Health Service, deliberative democratic theory and practice, and the requirements for public space in a democracy – check out the Research page for more details, or the Teaching page for details of some of my marvellous PhD students.

A New Zealander, born in Wellington, I was raised nomadically in New Zealand, Hong Kong and, briefly, Singapore. I have lived and worked in Australia from 2000 to 2003 and most recently since 2014; and in the UK at various times, including 2003-10 when I was Lecturer then Senior Lecturer at the University of York; and 2010-14 when I was Associate and then full Professor of Public Policy at the University of Warwick.

My undergraduate study was in Anthropology and English Literature at Victoria University of Wellington, after which came three years in local radio and the NZ Ministry of Defence. I spent most of the next decade in public relations in Wellington, Auckland and London, eventually working for myself as a specialist in internal communications on big IT and restructuring projects.

It was while doing internal communications work that I learned that the major obstacles to corporate change were less front-line workers — they were often the creative ones — and more managers with power bases to protect. Working to overcome those barriers was the origin of my interest in participatory and deliberative democracy.

I did my MA in Political Studies at the University of Auckland while keeping the business running, finally packing it up to start my PhD with John Dryzek. I began at Melbourne, then moved with him to the Australian National University in 2000. Bob Goodin and John Uhr joined my supervisory panel there. You can find my full academic CV here: Parkinson CV Aug 2015.

I blog, sporadically, at http://boggler.johnrparkinson.net and http://whatdaddoes.wordpress.com, and tweet @profparkinson.