Beyond Empathy and Inclusion: The Challenge of Listening in Democratic Deliberation

Description

Political theorists often see deliberation--understood as communication and debate among citizens--as a fundamental act of democratic citizenship. In other words, the legitimacy of a decision is not simply a function of the number of votes received, but the quality of the deliberation that precedes voting. Efforts to enhance the quality of deliberation have focused on designing more inclusive deliberative procedures or encouraging citizens to be more internally reflective or empathetic. But the adequacy of such efforts remains questionable. Beyond Empathy and Inclusion aims to better understand the prospects of democracy in a world where citizens are often uninterested or unwilling to engage across social distance and disagreement. Specifically, the book considers how our practices of listening affect the quality and democratic potential of deliberation. Mary F. Scudder offers a systematic theory of listening acts to explain the democratic force of listening. Modeled after speech act theory, Scudder's listening act theory shows how we do something in the act of listening, independent of the outcomes of this act. In listening to our fellow citizens, we recognize their moral equality of voice. Being heard by our fellow citizens is what ensures we have a say in the laws to which we are held. The book also tackles timely questions regarding the limits of toleration and listening in a democratic society. Do we owe listening even to democracy's enemies? After all, a virtue of democratic citizenship is the ability to resist political movements that seek to destroy democracy. Despite these challenges and risks, Scudder shows that listening is a key responsibility of democratic citizenship, and examines how listening can be used defensively to protect against threats to democracy. While listening is admittedly difficult, especially in pluralist societies, this book investigates how to motivate citizens to listen seriously, attentively, and humbly, even to those with whom they disagree. Cover Beyond Empathy and Inclusion Copyright Dedication Contents Acknowledgments 1. The Challenge of Listening 1.1 Situating the Project 1.2 Outline of the Book 2. The Insufficiency of Inclusion and the Need for Uptake 2.1 Inclusion and the Democratic Force of Deliberation 2.2 The Insufficiency of Inclusion 2.3 Unpacking Uptake 2.4 Uptake as a Universal Ideal? 2.5 Conclusion 3. Empathy as a Strategy and Ideal of Deliberation: The Promise and Perils 3.1 The Empathic Turn in Democratic Deliberation 3.2 Pathologies of Empathy 3.3 Conclusion 4. A Listening-​Centered Approach to Democratic Deliberation 4.1 The Politics of Listening 4.2 Listening Act Theory 4.3 Conclusion 5. Listening toward Democracy 5.1 Performative Democratic Listening 5.2 Conditions of Democratic Listening 5.3 Empirical Markers of Listening 5.4 Conclusion 6. Listening for Difference in Democracy 6.1 Challenges to Listening across Difference 6.2 Difference and Democracy 6.3 The Democratic Value of Recognizing the Limits of Mutual Understanding 6.4 Listening to Difference as a Strategy for Democratizing Deliberation 6.5 Conclusion 7. Democratic Ideals in a Non-​Ideal World 7.1 Uptake in the Real World 7.2 Challenging Democracy 7.3 What Do We Do When Ideal Standards Are Not Met or Repeatedly Violated? References Index