Research On The Issue Of Preference In Deliberative Democracy

Democracy theory has undergone a major theory deliberative turn since the1980s,deliberative democracy featured of preference conversion rather than aggregativepreference is regard as the latest model of democracy which will compensate for liberaldemocracy deficit and get rid of the democratic dilemma. Deliberative democracy doubtthe premise of the democratic vote based on given preferences that will violate thevalues of democracy and result in false selfish and illegitimate preferences. Deliberativedemocracy theory put forward the concept of "endogenous preferences" against theestablished preconditions of liberal democracy that personal preferences are not staticbut changed in the political process, and need to put rationality justified argument.Deliberative democracy trying to repair the premise of democratic vote and socialchoice theory that consensus can’t be reached. Deliberative democracy emphasizes thevalue of political participation and believes that citizen will translate preferencesthrough deliberation mechanism under the guidance of the public reason, rationaldiscussion and sincere dialog in the public good, finally reach consensus and enhancepublic spirit of citizens.Preference conversion achieved under conditions of deliberative democracy can beattributed to two main ways: the first is reach consensus as possible through open andrational discussion, spreading from the public domain to the state and national policy toreduce reliance on the vote of liberal democracy. Rational discussion can limit thedefect of personal information inadequate and irrational constraints, promoting the falseoriginal preferences towards more real preferences. The discussion is public statementof the reasons as well, the public will restrain their selfish preferences and shift to thepublic good oriented preferences. Consensus can be met but hard to find, deliberativedemocracy has been widely criticized and questioned by the idea of consensus, so itturned to another idea that define the scope of preferences by the intervention ofpersonal preference so that the public can select out and even reduce differences dimensions, showing voters "single-peaked preference" to avoid the voting paradoxproblem and enhance the effectiveness of voting.Rational discussion is the core of achieving preference conversion as welldemocracy, but deliberative democracy have failed to give a firm answer about thevalue of rational discussion and whether rational discussion will achieve the desiredideal preference conversion or not. What’s the value of rational discussion? Theexpectant preference conversion will timely manner? We will begin to reflect in the endof the article.