Dialogic Consensus as a Moral Philosophical Grounding for Deliberative Democracy

Deliberative democracy aims for citizens to come together, in a structured way, to discuss and deliberate about policyissues which affect them. Because of the essential inter-subjective bonds amongst members of a community, dialogueamongst members which aims to decide about what is best for the community, is a situation in which we can usefullycall upon moral philosophical precepts. Here we consider a possible philosophical foundation for these communitydeliberations. Dialogic consensus is a process of inclusive, non-coercive and reflective dialogue aimed at reaching aconsensual decision as to what is best for the community involved. It follows principles of universalizability and idealspeech situations, so that the values of the community can be maximised. Dialogic consensus can be justified bothepistemically and normatively, and provides a potential moral philosophical underpinning to deliberative democracy.