[Commlist] Call for papers for Workshop on Deliberation and Law-making

Call for papers for *Workshop* on Deliberative Democracy in legislative 
domains**

*Topic:*“Deliberation in law making procedures. Enhancing Trust in 
modern democracies”

*Organizing Committee*:

/Dr Anastasia Deligiaouri/(Marie Curie Experienced Research Fellow, 
MSCA-IF), Dublin City University, Ireland, (anastasia.deligkiaouri /at/ dcu.ie) 
<mailto:(anastasia.deligkiaouri /at/ dcu.ie)> *

/Dr Jane Suiter/, Associate Professor, School of Communications, 
Director of the Institute for Future Media and Journalism, Dublin City 
University, Ireland, (jane.suiter /at/ dcu.ie) <mailto:(jane.suiter /at/ dcu.ie)>

/Professor David Farrell,/Head, School of Politics and International 
Relations, University College Dublin, Ireland (david.farrell /at/ ucd.ie) 
<mailto:(david.farrell /at/ ucd.ie)>

with the support of Political Studies Association of Ireland (PSAI) and 
the specialist group of Participatory Deliberative Democracy.

**

*Venue:*Dublin City University, Ireland

*Date:*Thursday May 9^th , 2019

*Deadline for submitting paper proposals:*28 February 2019

Deliberative democracy in theory and in practice has been developing 
rapidly over the last decade enriching significantly the study of 
democratic politics. The strong philosophical foundations of 
deliberation (Habermas 1996; Rawls 1993) were followed by an important 
development of arguments and strands within deliberative democracy (eg 
Dryzek 1994, Gutmann and Thompson 2003). In addition to the 
always-challenging theoretical discussion on several procedural and 
conceptual aspects of deliberation, the empirical applications of 
deliberative democracy have equally experienced a remarkable rise 
(Thompson 2008) as well as in online domains. A growing number of 
deliberative experiments and platforms have complimented the theoretical 
principles of deliberative theory with ‘real politics’ initiatives in 
which citizens can deliberate, exchange ideas and potentially contribute 
to decision making. We can argue that in deliberative democracy there is 
often a cross fertilization between theory and practice (Cavalier, 2011: 
21).

The informed, active and engaged citizen stands at the very heart of 
deliberative democracy re-introducing, thus, a participatory turn in 
democratic theory. The purpose of deliberative fora is to enhance 
knowledge, foster dialogue between interlocutors and reach well-reasoned 
and well balanced decisions. Although not all strands of deliberative 
democracy agree on the whole procedure feeding a well balanced decision 
making, deliberative procedures provide a substantive locus for public 
discussion and public reasoning for policies that are about to be 
implemented.

Deliberative democracy both in relation to its origins and its actual 
implementation is closely associated with legal procedures as law making 
constitutes the main institutional process by which policies are 
decided, enacted and implemented. Law making in representative 
democracies is reflective of the normative stance that legislatures are 
representatives of people and therefore law making is also illustrative 
of peoples’ needs and interests. However, ‘strong democracies’ (Barber 
2004) require that citizens are constantly present in politics and are 
able to influence decisions not only during elections but on other given 
instances as well. Presumably, if this continuous presence of citizens 
in political affairs is maintained, the feeling of “trust” which is 
closely associated with how citizens understand and address democratic 
procedures will be restored in modern representative democracies. Trust 
is considered a basic factor and quality indicator for democracy and low 
levels of political trust are associated with less support for law 
compliance and may undermine democratic procedures (Marien and Hooghe 
2011: 282).

By fulfilling and realizing this normative assumption for the importance 
of citizens participation in politics, real world cases have shown that 
citizens can have a more substantial role in law making even to the 
highest level of legal hierarchy which is the Constitution. In addition, 
a number of e-rulemaking initiatives with the most prominent of them 
being the US e-rulemaking initiative have developed a long term culture 
for a more institutional approach in public participation in relation to 
legislative procedures. The EU has also adopted consultation and 
feedback procedures throughout the law making cycle.

This one-day workshop aims to explore new trends and innovations in 
deliberative democracy with specific attention to deliberative 
procedures in legislative politics and law making. We welcome papers and 
contributions predominantly on the following topics but also on other 
relevant topics

- Innovations in participatory democracy and results reported

- How public deliberation can feed law-making procedures?

- Potential and preconditions for institutionalization of deliberative 
procedures in legislative politics

- Deliberative procedures and law making in the EU

- E-rulemaking and deliberation

- How participation and deliberation in law making procedures can 
enhance the feeling of trust in institutions and reinvigorate modern 
representative democracies?

- How important is trust between deliberators and trust in procedures 
for the procedure of deliberation and its success?

- How deliberation can fit in an institutional design. Preconditions, 
problems, benefits

- Evaluation and incorporation of citizens’ consultation and input in 
legislative politics

- Indicators of trust in law making procedures

*Submission details:* Please submit a short abstract of no more than 300 
words to (anastasia.deligkiaouri /at/ dcu.ie) 
<mailto:(anastasia.deligkiaouri /at/ dcu.ie)> with cc to (jane.suiter /at/ dcu.ie) 
<mailto:(jane.suiter /at/ dcu.ie)>, (david.farrell /at/ ucd.ie) 
<mailto:(david.farrell /at/ ucd.ie)>by February 28^th , 2019 by indicating at 
the topic of the email “Workshop submission PEREDEP 2019”. All 
submissions will be peer –reviewed by the organizing committee and 
external reviewers. Please indicate at your abstract if it is part of a 
research project. Authors will be notified of the decision for their 
paper proposal by 15 March 2019.

*Further information*: Participants are expected to cover their own 
accommodation and travel costs. Due to the kind support of PSAI a 
limited number of travel (within Ireland) and accommodation bursaries 
are available for PhD students if their participation in the conference 
is not funded by their University. Please indicate if you require a 
bursary at your abstract submission.

*Registration:*Participation in the conference is free but all 
participants are required to register by filling in the attached 
Registration form. Please register by April 30^th , 2019 by sending the 
registration form with your details to (anastasia.deligkiaouri /at/ dcu.ie) 
<mailto:(anastasia.deligkiaouri /at/ dcu.ie)>

References

Barber, Benjamin (2004) /Strong Democracy: Participatory Politics for a 
New Age/. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Cavalier, Robert (2011) (Ed) /Approaching Deliberative Democracy,Theory 
and Practice,/ Pittsburgh: Carnegie Mellon University Press.

Dryzek, John. S. (1994). /Discursive democracy: Politics, policy, and 
political science/. Cambridge University Press.

Gutmann, Amy and Thompson, Dennis (2003) Deliberative Democracy Beyond 
Process, pp 31-52

in Fishkin, James, S. and Laslett, Peter (2003) (eds) /Debating 
Deliberative Democracy/. Malden, MA,

Oxford and Victoria: Blackwell Publishing.

Habermas, Jurgen (1996) Three Normative Models of Democracy, in 
Benhabib, Seyla (ed.) /Democracy and Difference. Contesting the 
Boundaries of the Political./ Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 
pp. 22-30.

Marien, Sofie and Hooghe Marc (2011) Does political trust matter? An 
empirical investigation into the relation between political trust and 
support for law compliance. /European Journal of Political Research /50: 
267–291, DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-6765.2010.01930.x

Rawls, John (1993) /Political Liberalism./ New York: Columbia University 
Press.

Suiter, Jane, Farrell, David and O’Malley, Eoin (2014) When do 
Deliberative Citizens Change their

Opinions? Evidence from the Irish Citizens' Assembly. /International 
Political Science Review/ 37: 198-

212. DOI: 10.1177/0192512114544068

Thompson, Dennis (2008) Deliberative Democratic Theory and Empirical 
Political Science. /Annual/

/Review of Political Science /(11): 497–520. DOI: 
10.1146/annurev.polisci.11.081306.070555.

//

/This workshop in organized as part of the project *“PEREDEP” [Promoting 
E-Rulemaking in the EU through Deliberative Procedures*].////The project 
has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and 
innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 
798502///

//

//


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