Deliberative ideals across diverse cultures

摘要: Deliberation is now among the central topics of political theory, and its practice is widely accepted as essential to democracy. But if the study of deliberation is vast, it is also strangely self-limiting. Deliberation has mostly been studied in democratic states, developed and Western, over a short snatch of human history. This is a problem if we think deliberation is necessary for legitimate and effective rule, and even more so if we see it as central to the constitution of all human groups (Gintis, van Schaik, and Boehm 2015; Mercier and Sperber 2011). Our understanding of deliberation, of its prospects and limits, would be greatly enriched were we even minimally aware of its manifestation across a more diverse collection of societies and cultures, past and present. With this wider perspective, familiar questions could be asked anew, and perhaps answered differently. Consider the question of motivation. Given that deliberation requires considerable time and effort, and since its political effects are uncertain, there is good reason to wonder why people engage in it. Within democratic societies, an important source of motivation is the ideal of self-rule, which implies that people deliberate, rather than just struggle or fight, because they feel a particular kind of ethical duty towards their fellow citizens. They seek to justify their politics, not just win. But this ideal is surely an atypical motivational source, not least given that collective deliberation predates parliamentary democracy and is widespread in non-democratic polities. What social and political ideals motivate deliberation elsewhere, and how these other ideals shape its form and effects, are basic questions …