Deliberative Democracy for Diabolical Times

André Bächtiger is Professor and Chair of Political Theory and Empirical Democracy Research in the Institute of Social Sciences at the University of Stuttgart. He is one of the pioneering researchers for combining theoretical and empirical research on deliberation and, together with John Dryzek, is co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Deliberative Democracy. He recently obtained an ERC Advanced Grant for 'Designing Democracy on Mars and Earth'. John S. Dryzek is Distinguished Professor in the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance at the University of Canberra. He is one of the founders of the deliberative democracy field. His previous books have won the International Conference for the Study of Political Thought's Spitz Prize for Best Book in Liberal and/or Democratic Theory, and the Western Political Science Association's Clay Morgan Prize for Best Book in Environmental Political Theory.

• 1. An introduction for diabolical times; 2. Deliberation for realists and skeptics; 3. Democracy in a diabolical soundscape; 4. How to deliberate with (and against) populists; 5. How to deliberate with (and against) extremists; 6. How to deliberate with (and against) deniers; 7. How to deliberate with (and against) authoritarians; 8. How to deliberate with everybody; 9. How to renew a deliberative democracy; Conclusion; References.

'Two of our leading deliberative democrats ask what deliberative democracy can do to halt democratic erosion. Confronting the hard realities of democrat decline, Bächtiger and Dryzek sketch out how citizen centered communicative practices can help turn back the tide of that decline. Realistic and solution centered, this is a much-needed update to the deliberative democracy paradigm.' Simone Chambers, Professor and Chair of Political Science, University of California Irvine