Dewey and Arendt on the Renewal of the Public.

This paper explores the fundamental tensions in between deliberative and participatory democracy via the philosophy of John Dewey. Some of the major distinctions between deliberative and participatory models of democracy are well documented. Broadly speaking, participatory democracy privileges participation as an end in itself, presents a normative appeal to widespread citizen participation in building political communities, and posits that individuals are transformed through political engagement (e.g. Barber 1984). In contrast, deliberative models privilege the procedures of rational discourse to ensure democratic legitimacy (e.g. Habermas 1996). Perhaps most simply, participatory democracy privileges action, while deliberative democracy privileges (specific forms of) speech. .x000d..x000d.In this paper, I argue that the project to integrate participatory and deliberative democracy demands re-thinking the distinction between speech and action. To this end, I turn to John Dewey’s concept of cooperative experimental inquiry as an alternative means to understand this relationship. This reconstruction of Dewey will hopefully enable democratic theorists to move beyond the limits of both participatory and deliberative models. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]