Deliberation

Political deliberation is a form of collective decision-making about policy issues, in which a group thoroughly analyzes a problem, scrutinizes proposals that reflect a variety of perspectives, and then chooses a well-reasoned solution. The practice of deliberation is described from its development in ancient Greece and Rome through the medieval period and the rise of modern deliberative institutions, and up to today's practices involving a variety of deliberative institutional designs. The long history of deliberative theory is recounted, from its roots in Aristotle's Politics through its revival in recent theories of democracy. Major methodologies employed in the empirical study of deliberation and notable findings of such research are explored.