Democratic Deliberation

Democratic deliberation involves a back and forth process in which people say what they think should happen on a public issue — such as who we should vote for or what policy we should adopt — and then explain and test the reasons and evidence supporting their proposal. Through democratic deliberation, we discern how best to serve the common good by focusing together on the reasoning behind the idea.

Discussions like these don’t happen just anywhere, they are cultivated by environments where people can evaluate, critique, question or support their ideas in a free and orderly manner. Following German philosopher Jürgen Habermas, these environments are called the “public sphere.” The idea is that in a true public sphere, people come together freely to discuss social problems, political solutions and other areas of debate, and the best reasoning wins the day instead of letting lobbyists with deep pockets or elitism tip the scales.

The GRACE Project is intentionally building a public sphere for democratic deliberation at Hope College. Our student cohort experience and larger curricular programming directly focuses on helping students learn how to debate, ask questions, argue well and serve the common good.

• What is
  Democratic
  Deliberation?
• The Process of
  Democratic
  Deliberation