The Deliberative Democracy Handbook: Strategies for Effective Civic Engagement in the Twenty-First Century

by John Gastil and Peter Levine (Editor)

The Deliberative Democracy Handbook is a terrific resource for democratic practitioners and theorists alike. It combines rich case material from many cities and types of institutional settings with careful reflection on core principles. It generates hope for a renewed democracy, tempered with critical scholarship and political realism. Most important, this handbook opens a spacious window on the innovativeness of citizens in the U.S. (and around the world) and shows how the varied practices of deliberative democracy are part of a larger civic renewal movement.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction

336 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2005

Reviews

[Michalyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was one of the required textbooks for one of my classes and I enjoyed its attempt to give more of a practical perspective on deliberative democracy. I think there are alot of promising things here and the many different examples of deliberative democracy in action are wonderful.

I give it 3 stars though because I'm still not sure yet that I'm convinced that DD can work effectively enough to warrant the tremendous resources it takes to put it into action. I guess put another way, I would like to find out if ordinary citizens in grassroots ways can deliberate on their own or if highly qualified experts are always needed to prepare materials, facilitate etc.

[Carrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are surprisingly few examples of experiments that have been conducted along these lines. This book manages to cover most of them. Project affiliates submit the write-ups, and they are usually biased accordingly, with drastic variation in quality and depth. The projects are also quite dated, but the selection presented still provides a valuable understanding of the different models attempted in the past - on top of which modern communication technologies might be applied.