In Print: The Two Faces of Democracy
Publication Title
The Two Faces of Democracy: Decentering Agonism and Deliberation
Author
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Publication Date
March 2023
About the Book (from the publisher)
The democratic imagination is facing significant challenges. These challenges involve not only deep philosophical questions about the core values of democracy but also pressing practical issues related to how we should understand and confront the rise of right-wing authoritarian populism. What should our stance be as defenders of democratic life? The two most prominent efforts to orient us here are the deliberative and agonistic models of democracy. The former emphasizes reasoned discussion, but some worry that this exclusive focus overlooks structures of injustice that distort civil deliberation. The latter prioritizes contestation and conflict, but its proponents struggle to explain why this prime orientation to defeating political opponents will not also corrode our commitment to normative democratic restraints, like fairness. This book develops an understanding of the moral core of democracy. In doing so, it illuminates how these two faces of democratic life, the deliberative and agonistic, each has a significant, but constrained, role to play in a more capacious comprehension of what our democratic commitments require of us. The “communicative model” of democracy proposed here provides better grounds for facing the challenges of contemporary antidemocratic movements than either the deliberative or agonistic models alone.
About the Author
Mary F. (Molly) Scudder specializes in democratic theory. She is an expert on empathy and listening in political communication. She is the author of two books and several research articles dealing with how citizens who have diverse and conflicting political and moral commitments can come together to order public life in a democratic way. Dr. Scudder is interested in political decision-making among everyday people, and how political talk shapes people’s political opinions.