On The Possibility Of Democratic Decision-making In The Contest Of Plural Values

The purpose of the thesis is trying to give a comprehensive and accurate interpretation of the theory of deliberative democracy through an analysis of its contexts, main contents and theoretical and practical values.After the survey of the theoretical history of deliberative democracy, the thesis sets out to clarify and analyze the contexts in which the deliberative democracy originated. In this chapter, the thesis analyzes the influences of the plural trend in the Western societies to the theories of democracy in 20th century. The trend of the structural and value plurality in the modern societies has greatly changed the classic idea of democracy which presupposes the homogeneity of society and morality. Especially when the conflicts of immeasurable values appeared in the form of universal moral conflicts, and when they inevitably turned into the focus issues of the political process, the theory of democracy as a theory to explain the formation of public will must give a new explanation. However, the goal can't be achieved by the democratic theories from the angles of economics or sociology, and the radical democratic theory which emphasizes more participation has to give an explanation on the possibility of participation. The deliberative democracy started in the contexts above.The theme of deliberative democracy is to find out the conditions which guarantee that each value is treated equally. Deliberative democracy redirects the focus from the expression and aggregation of opinions and wills to the process of the formation of opinions and wills; with the redirection of the focus, what the deliberative democracy concerns about in no longer the expression or the representation of the interests and value preferences; what it concerns about is that on what kind of conditions the interests or value preferences formed in a way which all agree or at least have necessary understanding. Besides, the language of democratic theories has changed from compromise to deliberation, which is embodied in the meaning of core conception of deliberative democracy, namely"public deliberation". First, the motivation of deliberation is from the wish of mutual understanding of all sides who cares about the public interests. Second, public deliberation, as a reasonable way (procedure) of establishing the coherence of a variety of controversial interests and values, is embodied in the mutual dialogues and persuasions. Third, the goal of deliberation is to reach consensus, but not compromise of all sides. To reach the goal, it's necessary to form a strict framework to guarantee the equal and participative rights of all sides. So, we can see, the deliberative democracy is inclusive, responsive, reflective and procedural.