DELIBERATIVE DEMOCRACY IN BRITAIN

'Engaging Communities' event staged by a coalition of organisations (Age Concern, Cornwall County Council, the NHS, the faith community, Cornwall Rural Community Council and Cornwall Centre for Volunteers) to raise awareness of the impact of an ageing population in Cornwall and to launch the debate into the level of care which should be provided by individuals and communities, and what should be provided by the state.

One-Day Conference organised by the Centre de Recherches en Civilisation Britannique (CREC), Université Paris 3 - Sorbonne-Nouvelle

First in a series of one-day conferences on the theme of deliberative democracy

On Saturday 6 December 2008,
Institut du Monde Anglophone,
5 rue de l'école de médecine, 75015 Paris,
(métro Odéon or Cluny-la-Sorbonne)
Grand Amphi

DELIBERATIVE DEMOCRACY IN BRITAIN: THEORY AND PRACTICE OF PARTICIPATION

In the political arena as well as in academic circles references to the notion of deliberative democracy are increasingly popular, particularly in the Anglo-Saxon world. The idea of a 'deliberative imperative' provides the basis for the definition of an ideal form of democracy in which participation is seen as a means to make representation more open and to overcome the traditional frontiers of the supposedly failing model of representative democracy (as reflected in the notion of a 'crisis' of participation illustrated by the rise of voter apathy and the decline of conventional forms of mobilisation) by putting emphasis on a consensual decision-making model.

In Britain, New Labour has claimed to espouse a 'new politics' which would lead to a redefinition of the relationship between the institutions of government and the people. This deliberative surge has translated into the adoption of a vast array of participative procedures aiming at establishing an inclusive decision-making process involving all the relevant actors (polls, referenda, forums, consultative commissions, citizens' juries etc.). New Labour has also sought to reflect the new procedures internally by reforming its own decision-making structures.

This first conference must be understood as the launching pad for a series of one-day conferences aiming at confronting the rhetoric of participation to an analysis of the practical effect of the procedures created in its name, as they can be observed in Britain. To what extent can the participative approaches put in place at the local, national and even international levels, as well as within organisations (political, commercial or otherwise), reflect the principles of a new type of governance? In the new participative procedures, what is the relative importance afforded to process and to outcome, in other words, what is the relationship between the substantive and procedural effects of the new decision-making process?

The analysis of the practical consequences of the move towards direct democracy will allow the conference to look beyond the discourse of participation and practice and to open a debate on the legitimacy of such procedures. The general survey provided by the range of presentations on 6 December will help identity the issues deserving of a more detailed analysis in subsequent conferences.

For more information contact: Emmanuelle.Avril (emmanuelle.avril@wanadoo.fr) or Bernard Lefebvre d'Hellencourt (bdhllencourt@club-internet.fr).