The din and deadlock of public life in America--where insults are traded, slogans proclaimed, and self-serving deals made and unmade--reveal the deep disagreement that pervades our democracy. The disagreement is not only political but also moral, as citizens and their representatives increasingly take extreme and intransigent positions. A better kind of public discussion is needed, and Amy Gutmann and Dennis Thompson provide an eloquent argument for "deliberative democracy" today. They develop a principled framework for opponents to come together on moral and political issues.

Gutmann and Thompson show how a deliberative democracy can address some of our most difficult controversies--from abortion and affirmative action to health care and welfare--and can allow diverse groups separated by class, race, religion, and gender to reason together. Their work goes beyond that of most political theorists and social scientists by exploring both the principles for reasonable argument and their application to actual cases. Not only do the authors suggest how deliberative democracy can work, they also show why improving our collective capacity for moral argument is better than referring all disagreements to procedural politics or judicial institutions. Democracy and Disagreementpresents a compelling approach to how we might resolve some of our most trying moral disagreements and live with those that will inevitably persist, on terms that all of us can respect.

An original and fresh attempt to bring the best of contemporary moral and political philosophy to bear on many important contemporary disputes and to do so not with a view to establishing the 'right answer' on those issues, but with a view to showing how citizenry that is committed to deliberative democracy might approach them.

Democracy and Disagreementwill much raise the level of academic and public discussion of democracy--its nature and its possibilities. This is a thoroughly clear, fair, intelligent, reasonable book, with flashes of great insight. I do not think that it will be possible to discuss deliberative democracy, in the future, without reference to this book.

An imaginative program for recasting the conduct of American political dialogue. Gutmann...and Thompson...propound a theory called 'deliberative democracy.' With this, they say, moral arguments over issues such as whether the government should fund abortion or enforce affirmative action can acquire a depth beyond the usual sound-bite level...They examine the ethics of surrogate motherhood, children's rights, preferential hiring, and other ticklish issues, offering deeply considered commentaries. All this makes for fascinating, engaged reading.

This is a desperately relevant and much needed book...The authors' message is cogent and cheering. Beginning with argument on the necessary persistence of moral and fundamental disagreement, they lead the reader through temperate and illuminating analyses of the virtues of reciprocity and publicity, the value, albeit limited, of utilitarianism, the application of the principle of liberty to the decent goal of personal integrity...The book is important reading.

The authors' defense of deliberative democracy represents a major contribution to the discussion of the best theory and practice of democracy...[Gutmannand Thompson] develop standards for judging the quality of democratic discourse. These 'constitutional' principles include requirements governing both the conditions (reciprocity, publicity, and accountability) and content (basic liberty, basic opportunity, and fair opportunity) of deliberative democracy. Numerous extended examples of the meaning and interactions of these principles temper the abstract quality of the complex and sophisticated analysis...Democracy and Disagreementis unsurpassed in the critical light it casts on the nature of democratic dialogue.

In Democracy and Disagreement, Amy Gutmann and Dennis Thompson go a long way towards filling the gap [between proceduralist and constitutional democrats]. The co-authors provide an appealing and yet not entirely unrealistic standard--called 'deliberative democracy'--to evaluate the workings of 'actually-existing' democracies. This book, despite its flaws, is a landmark contribution to democratic theory. It should help to set the terms for moral debate on democratic ideals for many years to come. Its core idea is simple: when democratic citizens disagree with each other about public policy, they should continue to reason together in order to reach mutually acceptable decisions, rather than resort to power politics or interest-group bargaining. The complex part is the debate over the moral principles which should guide political argument in democratic systems. No one else has developed a systematic, book-length argument in this area. Moreover, the co-authors use examples from everyday, real-life politics to make their case.

'Deliberative democracy' is a mere catchword until we are provided with a theoretical analysis of its terms and an account of its meaning in practice, in detail, in real time, in actual cases. That is what Gutmann and Thompson do in this book. With clarity and verve, they turn the catchword into an important critical instrument and political project.

In a new and meditative book on America's social conflicts, Democracy and Disagreement, Princeton professor Amy Gutmann and Harvard's Dennis Thompson suggest that citizens owe each other a more deliberative approach to governance, where moral disagreements like affirmative action are not winner-take-all matters.

Amy Gutmannis Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor of Politics and Director of the University Center for Human Values at <>Princeton University.Dennis Thompsonis Alfred North Whitehead Professor of Political Philosophy and Associate Provost at <>Harvard University. He is the author of The Democratic Citizen: Social Science and Democratic Theory in the Twentieth Century, John Stuart Mill and Representative Government, and coauthor (with Amy Gutmann) of Democracy and Disagreement.

Acknowledgments

Introduction

The Persistence of Moral Disagreement

The Sense of Reciprocity

The Value of Publicity

The Scope of Accountability

The Promise of Utilitarianism

The Constitution of Deliberative Democracy

The Latitude of Liberty

The Obligations of Welfare

The Ambiguity of Fair Opportunity

Conclusion

Notes

Index