Listening toward Democracy

Chapter 5 continues with a defense of a listening-centered approach to democratic deliberation. It begins with a discussion of the source of performative listening’s democratic power. The chapter shows that performative democratic listening relies on the affective-cognitive disposition of people who listen to their fellow citizens for the purpose of taking up what they have to say. Mere auditory listening becomes “listening toward democracy” when citizens listen seriously, attentively, and humbly. Chapter 5 goes on to consider the cultural and institutional conditions needed to encourage citizens to practice democratic listening. It also identifies empirical markers to be used in the assessment of listening, and to determine the degree to which uptake has been achieved. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the challenges of relying on listening in political contexts of difference, disagreement, and inequality, which are developed further in Chapter 6.

A Listening-Centered Approach to Democratic Deliberation

Chapter 4 proposes a listening-centered alternative to empathy-based approaches to deliberation. The chapter begins by discussing how the concept of listening is used in everyday language and then introduces a more systematic “theory of listening acts.” Using the categories of speech act theory to identify corresponding categories of the listening act, the author distinguishes between auditory, perauditory, and ilauditory listening. With this listening act theory, the author shows that listening is more than simply hearing what is said (auditory listening). Similarly, listening should not be equated with the outcomes it brings about, including consensus or mutual understanding (perauditory listening outcomes). We also act in listening (ilauditory listening). In listening to our fellow citizens we enact the deliberative ideal, acknowledging that their perspectives are relevant to our collective judgements and decisions. The chapter shows that fair consideration is predicated on ilauditory listening, or what the author calls “performative democratic listening.”

The Insufficiency of Inclusion and the Need for Uptake

This chapter demonstrates the insufficiency of inclusion for ensuring the democratic functioning of a deliberative system. It reinterprets the democratic force of deliberation, showing that it comes from uptake as much as inclusion. The author defines “uptake” as the due consideration of the arguments, stories, and perspectives that citizens share in deliberation. After inclusion, it is uptake that ensures citizens have a say in the laws to which they are held. The author shows, however, that uptake is not always straightforward. Distinct from inclusion, uptake faces its own obstacles, especially in large pluralistic societies in which people have to make decisions with real and disparate consequences for themselves and others. Chapter 2 shows not only that uptake is essential for achieving the democratic functioning of a deliberative system but also illustrates the challenges to achieving uptake in political contexts of deep difference.

The Challenge of Listening

Chapter 1 introduces the main arguments and key themes of the book. It begins by explaining the centrality of listening for meaningfully democratic deliberation. Being heard by their fellow citizens is what ensures people have a say in the laws to which they are held. Without listening there can be no democracy. The chapter outlines how a listening-centered approach to democratizing deliberation differs from existing approaches, which have tended to focus on reforming procedures and have all but ignored the need to develop citizens’ capacities. This chapter also discusses the various literatures to which the book’s arguments contribute. It explains the book’s general approach and key themes, including those related to making deliberation more accommodating of deep difference and disagreement. Asking whether listening is an absolute democratic good, this chapter also considers the limits of a democratic expectation to listen.

Democratic Ideals in a Non-Ideal World

The book concludes with a discussion of the real-world implications of pursuing a politics of listening. Does the expectation to fairly consider the inputs of others apply equally to members of a minority or marginalized group as it does to the relatively powerful and privileged members of society? Chapter 7 explains how to pursue the ideal of uptake and a politics of listening while remaining sensitive to the non-ideal conditions of the present. The chapter draws on political behavior research to show that people are capable of meeting the demands of citizenship laid out in this book. Nonetheless, this chapter also defends the practical value of the ideal of uptake, even when our efforts to attain it fall short. Discussing what to do when listening and uptake are consistently denied or beyond our reach, the chapter concludes by considering the critical value of ideal theory in a non-ideal world.

Empathy as a Strategy and Ideal of Deliberation

This chapter evaluates arguments in favor of using empathy, or imaginative perspective taking, to promote inclusion and uptake in deliberation across deep difference and disagreement. The author ultimately finds empathy-based approaches wanting. Specifically, the chapter identifies three pathologies of relying on empathy in democratic deliberation. First, given the practical limitations in people’s ability to put themselves in each others’ shoes, the outcomes of empathy are realized selectively and unevenly. Second, empathy’s reliance on imagination rather than communication puts it at odds with the normative core of deliberative democracy. And finally, the chapter shows that empathy’s emphasis on highlighting or uncovering similarities can exacerbate problems of exclusion in deliberation across difference. This chapter concludes that people must move beyond empathy in order to achieve the uptake on which full and fair deliberation depends.

Listening for Difference in Democracy

Chapter 6 asks whether a listening approach to deliberation can succeed in contexts of deep difference and disagreement. If so, what does that success look like? This chapter shows that the listening approach to deliberation helps us achieve democracy in pluralistic polities, not by overcoming the challenges to deliberation across difference but by drawing citizens’ attention to the process of doing justice to those challenges. The chapter proposes that the prospects for democratic listening and uptake are improved when those deliberating recognize the inherent limits of their ability to understand others. With this, the chapter shows how an ontology of identity/difference, vivified through encounters with difference, can actually offer a productive background for a deliberative democratic theory centered on the listening act.