About Democracy & Deliberation

Democracy

• Freedom of speech is the foundation of a healthy democracy. So is the art of balancing democratic values, such as liberty and equality with safety and security. For democracy to thrive, citizens must be able and willing to express and exchange ideas among themselves and with their representatives in government and be able to weigh courses of action and potential consequences. Free speech ensures that conflicting views can be voiced, heard, and understood. Without free and open discourse, meaningful deliberation on public issues grows more difficult, the bonds of political and civil society weaken, and democracy withers away. When values are in conflict, freedom of speech becomes a critical vehicle for exploring choices, weighing options, and finding common ground.

Deliberation

• While freedom of speech is necessary for a healthy democracy, it is not sufficient. Strong democracies (Barber, 2004) also need members who are willing to listen to and to respect others with viewpoints very different from their own—particularly on controversial issues. Such meaningful discussion of information and options in order to reach a decision is what we mean by “deliberation.”
• Deliberating civic issues—weighing opposing views, deciding difficult questions, accepting majority decisions while honoring dissent—is not natural behavior. Deliberation requires instruction, skill, and multiple opportunities to practice. The Civic Mission of Schools report notes that “Of all institutions, schools are the most systematically and directly responsible for imparting citizen norms”(Carnegie Corporation of New York and CIRCLE, 2003). Schools can engage students in discussions of substantive content on the institutions, governmental systems, and basic principles of a democratic society.
• While civic participation in both emerging and stable democratic societies depends on the ability to engage in deliberative discussions of controversial issues, there is little evidence that in-depth discussions of controversial issues regularly occur in either in the U.S. or in countries in Eastern Europe (Gimpel et al., 2003; Larson & Parker, 1996; Niemi & Niemi, 2007, DEEP; 2000).
• Civics teachers often avoid controversial issues or address them as current events without much insight or reflection. Hibbing and Theise-Morse show that although many Americans recoil from a system they perceive as driven by narrow self-interest and messy conflict, “to the extent the climate in schools these days avoids controversial political issues and does not help students to be comfortable in dealing with those issues, a great disservice is done to the students and the democratic process” (Hibbing and Theise-Morse, 2002).