Deliberative Democracy Research Assignment Paper (Essay Sample)

DELIBERATIVE DEMOCRACY
In his work Politics for People, David Mathews talks about the idea of deliberation in a democratic society. Contrary to other thinkers like David Held and Benjamin Barber, Mathews takes into account the minor issues that seem to be neglected or left out of discussions in political situations. He, unlike other thinkers seem ok to dwell on issues that are affecting the development of democracy in society. Barber and Held, for example, discuss what good democracies are and characteristics of democratic societies. In his first part of the book, he discusses factors that drive people out of politics. He outlines a number of them, including lack of good and objective media, poor political campaign, and lobbyists and professionals who fail to maintain ties with citizens to determine the issues affecting ordinary citizens.
In part four and five of his work, he tries to come up with the most effective form of political system that could address these factors that are driving people out of politics. Mathews argues that the best system is the deliberative democracy in a political system. To him, since the politicians have become untrustworthy the best way is to come up with a community system where citizens can deliberate on issues affecting them in their neighborhood. He, captures the views of the people in part one and two of his work; ‘’they are always making promises they can`t keep; I wish politicians were more honest…..people have lost faith in their policymakers because they always tell what they`re going to do and they never follow through’’ (pg 23,24). It is because of these dishonest characters that Mathews argues that the best form of politics is citizen politics; where citizens come to deliberate on issues of their surrounding since elected leaders seem to ignore what is affecting the ordinary citizen. He argues that instead of banking on policymakers to help them, the best way is for citizens to come together and debate on issues affecting them and then improve their living conditions. Mathews argues that community deliberation would help especially in addressing environmental issues like garbage collections. The argument by Mathews is typically true because in most cases the government response in addressing community problems has been slow. For example, his argument about crime is an example of how lack of good community politics can be bad. And as he put it, ‘’ these are problems that take advantage of a diminished sense of community and then further loosen the ties that bind people together’’(p 127)
The idea of community politics helps in building a stronger sense of community, which results into togetherness. His argument is quite similar to Barber`s idea of ‘’publicness’’, however, Mathews idea is more convincing since he talks of what constitutes the community and the benefits of communal deliberation unlike Barber who fails to clarify why ‘’publicness’’ is important yet there are elected representatives. Mathews` ideas are more ideal because the politicians have failed the citizens.
The foundation Mathews argues community politics built on is good for a stable political and democratic system; good political deliberation at the communal level creates a sense of responsiveness which co...