VOLUME 4 (2008), ISSUE 1, Book Reviews	Next Book Review>
On Dewey, Habermas and Deliberative Democracy William R. Caspary, Gallatin School at NYU SUGGESTED CITATION: William R. Caspary (2008) "On Dewey, Habermas and Deliberative Democracy," Journal of Public Deliberation: Vol. 4: No. 1, Article 10. http://services.bepress.com/jpd/vol4/iss1/art10	Download this article (80 K, PDF) Tell a Colleague Get Acrobat Reader Printing Tip: Select the option to 'print as image' in the Acrobat print dialog to ensure the article prints as it appears on screen. Learn more...
Alison Kadlec brings Deweyan Pragmatist principles to bear on the challenge of overcoming power asymmetries in public deliberation. This enables the design of settings and processes in which citizens of every social class, educational level, and cultural background can participate effectively. These ideas, on the design of democratic deliberative forums, appear as the concluding chapter of a larger work devoted to elaborating a “critical pragmatism.” Kadlec addresses the frequent criticism that Dewey is insufficiently critical – that he lacks a theory of social structures of power, and of the distortions of communication that result from the exercise of that power. She does a great service in bringing out the politically critical dimension in Dewey’s thought, and systematically refuting the mistaken reading of Dewey as insensitive to power relations. This exploration of Dewey's critical pragmatism generates a lively comparison and contrast with Habermasian critical theory.
Readers' Reactions No readers' reactions have been posted for this article. To submit one, copy the URL for this article (http://services.bepress.com/jpd/vol4/iss1/art10) and click here.