What Deliberative Democracy Means

Copyright, Princeton University Press. No part of this book may be distributed, posted, or reproduced in any form by digital or mechanical Means without prior written permission of the publisher.. 1. What Deliberative Democracy Means To go to war is the most consequential decision a nation can make. Yet most nations, even most democracies, have ceded much of the power to make that decision to their chief executives . to their presidents and prime ministers. Legislators are rarely asked or permitted to issue declarations of war. The decision to go to war, it would seem, is unfriendly territory for pursuing the kind of reasoned argument that characterizes political deliberation. Yet when President George W. Bush announced that the United States would soon take military action against Saddam Hus- sein, he and his advisors recognized the need to justify the decision not only to the American people but also to the world community. Beginning in October 2002, the administration found itself engaged in argument with the Congress and, later, with the United Na- tions.

inal decision, and to challenge the administration’s judgment. The imperfect deliberation that preceded the war prepared the ground for the less imperfect deliberation that followed. Thus even in a less than friendly environment, deliberative democracy makes an appearance, and with some effect. Both the CHAPTER ONE 2

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