Jürg Steiner is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and at the University of Bern. He is also Swiss Chair at the European University Institute in Florence. André Bächtiger is Swiss Chair Fellow at the European University Institute, Florence. Markus Spörndli is at the University of Bern, Switzerland. Marcus R. Steenbergen is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

• Introduction: the research questions; 1. Institutions and behaviour: the example of consociational theory; 2. The philosophical literature on deliberative politics; 3. Measuring deliberation: a Discourse Quality Index; 4. Understanding the real world of deliberation: hypotheses about antecedents and consequences; 5. The institutional antecedents of discourse; 6. Discourse and its consequences; Conclusion and research outlook; Appendix: Discourse Quality Index (DQI).

'The authors of Deliberative Politics in Action provide an extensive review of the literature on deliberative democracy … impressive research effort.' European Political Science