This collection of landmark essays explains how deliberation is contributing to the democratization of policy making and policy implementation, fields which in the past were reserved to restricted professional groups having the right expertise. The works are gathered together under four thematic headings, giving the reader a flavour of the kinds of arguments and visions of deliberative democracy. The first part contains essays presenting the main features and arguments employed to justify attributing some epistemic value to deliberative democracy. The second part offers a sample of works moving beyond the epistemic concerns of analytical philosophers and critical theorists alike and analyses ways in which deliberative democracy could be pragmatically employed to boost the legitimacy and effectiveness of real existing democracies. The third section brings together works wishing to move beyond the model of representative democracy adopted by real existing democracies and realise more radical political visions. The fourth part includes a representative sample of works discussing the influence the models of deliberative democracy charted have had on new modes of governance.
