A New Branch of Government?
I’ve been doing a lot of reading in the area of democratic theory lately, which will provide fodder for a slew of more academic posts shortly. The area I’m focusing on is called deliberative democratic theory, which is basically concerned with getting citizens involved in the political process by getting them to justify their favored policies to one another. So Amazon has been spitting a bunch of titles at me lately, and this one caught my eye: Deliberative Democracy in America: A Proposal for a Popular Branch of Government by Ethan J. Lieb. Here’s the description:
Leib concentrates on designing an institutional scheme for embedding deliberation in the practice of American democratic government. At the heart of his scheme is a process for the adjudication of issues of public policy by assemblies of randomly selected citizens convened to debate and vote on the issues, resulting in the enactment of laws subject both to judicial review and to possible veto by the executive and legislative branches. The “popular” branch would fulfill a purpose similar to the ballot initiative and referendum but avoid the shortcomings associated with those forms of direct democracy. Leib takes special pains to show how this new branch would be integrated with the already existing governmental and political institutions of our society, including administrative agencies and political parties, and would thus complement rather than supplant them.
I haven’t read the book yet, so I’m not sure how it would work. I’ve expressed my doubts about government by proposition before, so I’m open to new ideas that execute the core idea more effectively. I’m definitely going to have to try to get a hold of this book.
About Dave Thomer
Born and raised in Philadelphia. Studied philosophy at Fordham University in the Bronx, where I made many great friends and met my wonderful wife. We moved back to Philadelphia, where I studied philosophy some more and became a teacher. Online and off, I'm looking for ways that we can be better citizens and build stronger communities.