Citizens Without Robes: On the Deliberative Potential of Everyday Politics
This essay is a sympathetic critical comment on Cristina Lafont’s recent book, Democracy without Shortcuts: A Participatory Conception of Deliberative Democracy. I focus primarily on the arguments in the final chapters of the book that introduce a deliberative democratic re-interpretation of judicia...
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
University of Westminster Press
2020-10-01
|
| Series: | Journal of Deliberative Democracy |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://delibdemjournal.org/article/id/636/ |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1849389776973594624 |
|---|---|
| author | Simone Chambers |
| author_facet | Simone Chambers |
| author_sort | Simone Chambers |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This essay is a sympathetic critical comment on Cristina Lafont’s recent book, Democracy without Shortcuts: A Participatory Conception of Deliberative Democracy. I focus primarily on the arguments in the final chapters of the book that introduce a deliberative democratic re-interpretation of judicial review. Lafont appeals to the evocative imagery of citizens in robes and suggests that contesting legislation at the level of the supreme court does not take questions out of the public sphere and into the legal domain but rather brings questions of right and constitutionality into the political domain. The institutional possibility for individual citizens to challenge any law and thus launch a broad public debate that demands justifications and reasons is the heart of Lafont’s conception of participatory deliberative democracy. I find this a powerful and compelling defense and understanding of judicial review. I question, however, what appears to be a narrowing of deliberative democracy to constitutional contestation and so an abandonment of everyday politics where issues, debates, and controversies are not structured by the constraint of constitutional discourse. I argue that the focus on constitutional politics, made necessarily by her public reason requirement, narrows the range of her theory and appears to leave everyday politics outside the scope of deliberative democracy. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-cd95e076a5e44a04bcd285ece2a6003d |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2634-0488 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2020-10-01 |
| publisher | University of Westminster Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Deliberative Democracy |
| spelling | doaj-art-cd95e076a5e44a04bcd285ece2a6003d2025-08-20T03:41:52ZengUniversity of Westminster PressJournal of Deliberative Democracy2634-04882020-10-0116210.16997/jdd.388Citizens Without Robes: On the Deliberative Potential of Everyday PoliticsSimone Chambers0 This essay is a sympathetic critical comment on Cristina Lafont’s recent book, Democracy without Shortcuts: A Participatory Conception of Deliberative Democracy. I focus primarily on the arguments in the final chapters of the book that introduce a deliberative democratic re-interpretation of judicial review. Lafont appeals to the evocative imagery of citizens in robes and suggests that contesting legislation at the level of the supreme court does not take questions out of the public sphere and into the legal domain but rather brings questions of right and constitutionality into the political domain. The institutional possibility for individual citizens to challenge any law and thus launch a broad public debate that demands justifications and reasons is the heart of Lafont’s conception of participatory deliberative democracy. I find this a powerful and compelling defense and understanding of judicial review. I question, however, what appears to be a narrowing of deliberative democracy to constitutional contestation and so an abandonment of everyday politics where issues, debates, and controversies are not structured by the constraint of constitutional discourse. I argue that the focus on constitutional politics, made necessarily by her public reason requirement, narrows the range of her theory and appears to leave everyday politics outside the scope of deliberative democracy.https://delibdemjournal.org/article/id/636/constitutional rightspublic sphereself-governmentpublic reasonjudicial reviewdeliberative democracy |
| spellingShingle | Simone Chambers Citizens Without Robes: On the Deliberative Potential of Everyday Politics Journal of Deliberative Democracy constitutional rights public sphere self-government public reason judicial review deliberative democracy |
| title | Citizens Without Robes: On the Deliberative Potential of Everyday Politics |
| title_full | Citizens Without Robes: On the Deliberative Potential of Everyday Politics |
| title_fullStr | Citizens Without Robes: On the Deliberative Potential of Everyday Politics |
| title_full_unstemmed | Citizens Without Robes: On the Deliberative Potential of Everyday Politics |
| title_short | Citizens Without Robes: On the Deliberative Potential of Everyday Politics |
| title_sort | citizens without robes on the deliberative potential of everyday politics |
| topic | constitutional rights public sphere self-government public reason judicial review deliberative democracy |
| url | https://delibdemjournal.org/article/id/636/ |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT simonechambers citizenswithoutrobesonthedeliberativepotentialofeverydaypolitics |