Deliberative Politics in Action

'Deliberative politics' refers to the role of conversation and arguments in politics. Until recently discussion of deliberative politics took place almost exclusively among political philosophers, but many questions raised in this philosophical discussion cry out for empirical investigation. This book provides the first extended empirical study of deliberative politics, addressing, in particular, questions of the preconditions and consequences of high level deliberation. Using 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'. As deliberative politics moves to the forefront of political theory, this book makes an important contribution to deliberative democracy.

'The authors of Deliberative Politics in Action provide an extensive review of the literature on deliberative democracy … impressive research effort.' European Political Science, 'The most systematic attempt to operationalize principles for identifying and evaluating deliberation is at the center of the study of parliamentary discourse by Steiner and his associates.' Dennis F. Thompson, Department of Government, Harvard University

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.