Additional information
by Paula Cossart (Author)
In 2006, Barack Obama wrote that the 'framework of our constitution' is designed 'to force us into a "deliberative democracy" in which all citizens are required to engage in a process of testing their ideas against an external reality, persuading others of their point of view'. His statement is just one of the many examples of the contemporary relevance of deliberative democracy. But where does this model come from? When was it born and how did it develop? Starting from the 1980s, this book provides the first, complete history of the idea of deliberative democracy, analysing its relationship with the earlier idea, and practices, of participatory democracy in the 1960s and 1970s. The author provides a lucid and detailed analysis of the texts and authors that have contributed to this theoretical field and, in the final chapter, proposes a possible guiding map of today's complex deliberative field, in its present configuration.
Author Biography
A Doctor in Political Science, Paula Cossart is now Assistant Professor in sociology at the University of Lille and Member of the Institut Universitaire de France. She has been Research Assistant at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University (2002-2004), Invited Scholar at New York University (2012) and Harvard University (2013). Her current research focuses on the historical sociology of participatory democracy. Dr Cossart is particularly interested in the genealogy of deliberative devices. Among her publications are Vingt-cinq ans d'amours adultères: Correspondance sentimentale d'Adèle Schunck et d'Aimé Guyet de Fernex, 1824-1849 (Fayard, 2005); (with WM Keith) The Search for "Real" Democracy: Rhetorical Citizenship and Public Deliberation in France and the US, 1870-1940, in Kock Ch., Villadsen L. (ed.), Rhetorical Citizenship and Public Deliberation, Penn State University Press, 2012; (co-editor with J Talpin and WM Keith) La participation au prisme de l'histoire, issue of Participations. Revue de sciences sociales sur la démocratie et la citoyenneté, 2012.
