Abstract

The idea of deliberative democracy is as old as democracy itself. Like democracy, it has its origin in Greece, in the fifth century B.C. To think democracy in terms of the deliberative ideal brings certain internal tensions in the ideal: tensions between procedural justification and the need for independent standards of judgment and reason; tensions between freedom and equality; and the tensions between its ideal and the actual conditions of pluralism and complexity in contemporary globalized societies. Resolving such tensions is a demanding issue for the present pluralistic democracy. Following Habermas and Rawls, the present paper will try to find out whether its proposed reforms can enrich and improve democratic practice and provide justice in contemporary social life.