Criticizes Deliberative Democracy

...The idea that NAFTA's adoption was simply a misguided attempt to implement agreed-upon ends can only be a piece of liberal mythology...

...A clear example of such distortion can be drawn from an earlier free trade battle—the struggle over the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA...

...The elected legislature is an institution subject to at least some public control...

...Activists saw NAFTA as a direct threat to the public's ability to control powerful companies, and therefore also as a threat to the well-being of working people and the health of the environment...

...But so long as there are professional decision makers with interests and motives distinct from those they represent, it will be necessary for people to organize and agitate for the changes they desire...

...But the outcome was unaffected by the debate itself...

...First comes a period of warring factions, each one trying to seize total control but unable to do so...

...The notion that politics is mostly about reasons, arguments, and justifications for decisions— rather than about competing interests, conflict, and power—is a dangerous fantasy...

...At its best, this takes the form of the mass of excluded men and women taking back power that is rightfully their own—the essence of real democracy • KRISTIAN WILLIAMS is a graduate student on leave from the philosophy department at Georgetown University...

...More radical approaches are thereby cast out of bounds, either ignored by liberal theorists or decried as antidemocratic...

...Given the relative infrequency of elections, and the absence of any recall mechanism, other considerations will frequently outweigh the concerns of voters...

...It is the job of unions, women's groups, neighborhood associations, industrial councils, and civil rights organizations to research the interests of the people they represent, debate and cooperate with other organizations, and provide information (including information on the views of their members) to legislators and administrators...

...Oftentimes, the only thing that allows for actual deliberation is an interruption of the usual means of social discourse...

...Christiano bases this idea on a two-stage theory of democratic development...

...It has been characterized not only by its broadly anticapitalist goals, but also by its use of direct action tactics...

...It was a fatal day when the public discovered that the pen is mightier than the paving-stone...

...Christiano places American society in the second stage of development...

...Political survival depends on it...

...When it becomes apparent that no one faction is powerful enough to establish permanent dominion, the society enters a second stage, characterized by "bounded conflict in which individuals do not agree on everything...

...Had any genuine debate occurred, it would have focused on establishing the value of labor rights and environmental protection vis-à-vis the opportunity to increase corporate profits—since that's what was at stake—not on an empirical dispute about how best to address mutual concerns about economic justice and ecology...

...My claim is that because liberalism misunderstands the nature of inequality, its prescribed practices fall short of what is necessary to produce meaningful change...

...The liberal view would have more force in a genuinely democratic society, where individuals participate as equals in the decisions affecting their lives...

...What Democracy Looks Like This is how social change occurs: people organize and act so as to raise the costs of a given policy, until those with power cannot afford (socially, financially, politically, or whatever) to maintain that policy...

...The liberal story has it that "both sides" receive a fair hearing, and then the policy that best serves the public's interest is chosen by the elected representatives...

...But the outcome of the dispute reveals the limits of that need, given existing social inequalities...

...In our current circumstances, there can be no question that certain groups of people dominate both the political and economic spheres...

...They become uncomfortable, even hostile, when those excluded from the corridors of power stop talking and begin rudely to elbow their way into the decision-making process, insisting that they will not allow it to continue without them...

...A useful example of this approach can be found in Thomas Christiano's book The Rule of the Many, where he argues that the proper function of interest groups is to aid in deliberation...

...Standard accounts of representative government, including liberal accounts, recognize that both the representatives and the state have interests distinct from, and potentially in conflict with, those of the populace...

...The terms of the debate in Congress reflect the need of elected officials to speak to the interests of their constituencies...

...The state concedes nothing without demand, least of all the right to influence its proceedings...

...Such an approach is poorly conceived...

...But it will also require that the representative retain sources of funding, stay on good terms with the party leadership, maintain decent relations with other legislators of both parties, and preserve a favorable image in the media...

...By drawing attention to certain theoretical mistakes about the role of public deliberation and the nature of our social institutions, I hope to show direct action to be both a practical and legitimate tool for promoting social change...

...they exist to advocate their position, ideally with the support of rational arguments...

...Clearly, there is a role for persuasion and debate in gaining public support and in making strategic decisions in the pursuit of radical aims...

...In each case, liberal writers have complained that such tactics fall outside the established channels for effecting political change, and are thus unacceptable by the standards of a democratic society...

...This fact is understated in liberal social theory, and the role of rational debate exaggerated...

...It is not the validity of the arguments or the strength of one's convictions, but the ability to make things difficult for those in power that counts...

...Instead, Congress used the debates to direct attention away from the issues at hand and to hide the motives behind the legislation...

...Such conflicts are both more extensive and more readily apparent in institutions that are international in scope and less subject to public control of any sort—private corporations or global finance agencies like the WTO, IMF, and World Bank...

...He thanks Henry Richardson and Emily-Jane Dawson for their comments on earlier drafts of this paper...

...While it may well be true that the debate in Congress centered on which policy would best protect workers and the environment, these were clearly not the interests motivating the legislation...

...Furthermore, the state has an institutional interest in preserving and expanding its control over society...

...THE REAL conflict surrounding NAFTA, the fight behind the debate, pitted those concerned about workers and the environment against large multinational corporations eager to open new markets and make more money...

...It would obviously not do to have elected representatives publicly announce that corporate profits were priority one...

...Change occurs not because it should (because it's rationally justifiable), but because the status quo has become too difficult to maintain...

...But theorists of deliberation don't seem to be paying attention...

...Rather than organizing ordinary people (who generally lack real political influence), showing their numbers, presenting a threat, and raising the social costs of maintaining the status quo, liberal theory would advise activists to spend their time appealing to the rationality and benevolence of those with power...

...Deliberative theory offers a distorted view of the sort of exchange possible between those with power and those without it...

...It may yet be true that "most" people are committed to democratic ideals, but what does that matter if those with power are not so committed, or if the institutions that shape our society are profoundly undemocratic...

...Oscar Wilde IN THE LAST year, the globalization of capital has been pushed to the front of public debate, largely as a result of the emerging alliance between labor unions and environmentalists...

...The Liberal Approach Most liberal writers give public discourse a central place in their theories of democracy, seeking to ground political decisions in reason while preserving the sense of democratic legitimacy...

...So, many of these theorists are happy to align themselves with the underdog, but only so long as the demands of solidarity do not extend beyond participation in a reasoned debate...

...He assumes a general commitment to democratic principles and seems not to notice that power—especially economic power—is gained undemocratically, used unaccountably, and concentrated in very few hands...

...Of course, this idealized picture of deliberative democracy leaves out a great deal about the effects of social inequality and the real nature of power—that is, about the actual conditions in which political decisions are made...

...The rest, it seems, is left to the wisdom of our representatives and the graciousness of our bureaucrats...

...This coalition has shown its strength, first in Seattle, opposing the World Trade Organization (WTO), and then in Washington, D.C., demonstrating against the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank...

...see that they have conflicts of interest but . . . also have an allegiance to the underlying principles of democracy" At this point, the primary function of interest groups is deliberative...

...It seeks constantly to reproduce its structures and to push its power beyond the established limits...

...It does not reflect the reality of our nominally democratic representative government...

...Individually, each representative will have an interest in retaining a position and in securing influence within the legislature...

...This may require deference to the interests and preferences of his or her constituency (at least, of the voting constituency...

...change occurs because new arguments come to light...

...The fact that debate occurs says almost nothing about its real effect or its relation to policy...

...The liberal standard of free and open debate is too easily misapplied, and then it obscures both the actual operations of undemocratic institutions 94 n DISSENT / Winter 2001 NOTEBOOK and the means by which their power can be resisted...

...In a situation of unequal power, the arguments of the powerless routinely count for nothing...

...it was determined by institutional and class interests never discussed on the floor of Congress...

...I want to weigh the practical value of di92 n DISSENT / Winter 2001 NOTEBOOK rect action against the normative force of this liberal view and, more specifically, consider the relation between left politics and the liberal conception of deliberative democracy...

...During this period, the primary function of an interest group is to seek power and pressure the others to cede to its demands...

...And, of course, we ought not overlook the fact that those in important government positions share the interests and perspective of a particular economic class...

...Debate can be used as a smoke screen, giving the impression of an open and democratic process while allowing the same entrenched forces to make decisions behind the scenes...

...Power and Reason Christiano and his friends misunderstand the role of debate in our society, assuming much too close a link between the exercise of reason and the exercise of power...

...Properly staged, debate often serves to mask the real reasons a policy is adopted and the real interests it serves...

...And this interruption will rarely be deliberative...

...The liberal account doesn't just misunderstand the role of interest groups...

...yet conflicts of interest persist, with the state and the legislators on one side and the general public on the other...

...But, with little consideration of the real effects of inequality, liberals insist that interest groups rely mainly on the strength of their arguments to advance their aims...

...It is dangerous, in part, because it would misdirect the attention and energy of those trying to effect change...

...Amy Gutmann and DenDISSENT / Winter 2001 n 93 NOTEBOOK nis Thompson seem to have fallen for a rhetorical shell game when they write in Democracy and Disagreement, "The disagreement over NAFTA's effect on vulnerable workers in the United States and Mexico, democratic development in Mexico, and the environment took the same form: consensus on the moral values and conflict about whether NAFTA would serve them...

...The evidence they offer for this bizarre claim consists entirely of quotations from the congressional debate...

...DISSENT / Winter 2001 • 95...

...it is also confused about the nature of the institutions such groups seek to influence...

...Highlighting the limited perspective of intellectuals, liberal theory offers a "think tank" model of democracy, where it is only the study of social problems and the crafting of persuasive arguments that brings us closer to change...

...And, in regard to the WTO, IMF, and World Bank, it is precisely the inability of public discourse to affect policy that made direct action necessary...

...It was precisely this exclusion from real consideration that led to the Zapatista rebellion in the Mexican province of Chiapas on January 1, 1994—the day NAFTA went into effect— and that, nearly six years later, led tens of thousands of people not only to voice opposition to the WTO, but to disrupt its proceedings...

...But my focus here is on the relationship between the institutions that control our society and the people who would force those institutions to change...