Deliberative democracy has been the main game in contemporary political theory for two decades and has grown enormously in size and importance in political science and many other disciplines. The Oxford Handbook of Deliberative Democracy not only takes stock of deliberative democracy as a research field, but also explore and create links with philosophy, various research programmes in the social sciences and law, as well as policy practice around the globe. It provides a concise history of deliberative ideals in political thought while also discussing their philosophical origins.

The Handbook locates deliberation in a political system with different spaces, publics, and venues, including parliament and courts but also governance networks, protests, mini-publics, old and new media, and everyday talk. It documents the intersections of deliberative ideals with contemporary political theory, involving epistemology, representation, constitutionalism, justice, and multiculturalism. It also explores the intersections of deliberative democracy with major research fields in the social sciences and law, including social and rational choice theory, communications, psychology, sociology, international relations, framing approaches, policy analysis, planning, democratization, and methodology. The volume engages with practical applications, mapping deliberation as a reform movement and as a device for conflict resolution, documenting the practice and study of deliberative democracy around the world, in Asia, Latin America, Africa, Europe and global governance. It provides reflections on the field by pioneering thinkers such as Jürgen Habermas, Amy Gutmann, Dennis Thompson, and Robert Goodin.

Andre Bachtiger's profile page

John S. Dryzek's profile page

Jane Mansbridge's profile page

Mark E. Warren's profile page

André Bächtiger holds the Chair of Political Theory at the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Stuttgart since 2015. His research focuses on the challenges of mapping and measuring deliberation and political communication as well as understanding the preconditions and outcomes of high-quality deliberation in the contexts of both representative institutions and mini-publics. His research has been published by Cambridge University Press and in the British Journal of Political Science, European Journal of Political Research, the Journal of Political Philosophy, the Journal of Conflict Resolution, European Political Science Review, Political Studies, and Acta Politica.

John S. Dryzek is Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow and Centenary Professor in the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance at the University of Canberra. He is a former head of the Departments of Political Science at the Universities of Oregon and Melbourne, and of the Social and Political Theory Program at Australian National University. He is co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Political Theory and The Oxford Handbook of Climate Change and Society. His most recent OUP book is Climate-Challenged Society (with Richard Norgaard and David Schlosberg).

Jane Mansbridge is Charles F. Adams Professor of Political Leadership and Democratic Values. She is the author of Beyond Adversary Democracy, an empirical and normative study of face-to-face democracy, and the award-winning Why We Lost the ERA. She is also editor or coeditor of the volumes Beyond Self-Interest, Feminism, Oppositional Consciousness, Deliberative Systems, and Negotiating Agreement in Politics. Her work has appeared in leading journals such as the American Political Science Review and the Journal of Politics. Her current work includes studies of representation, democratic deliberation, everyday activism, and the public understanding of free-rider problems.

Mark E. Warren holds the Harold and Dorrie Merilees Chair for the Study of Democracy at the University of British Columbia. He is especially interested in democratic innovations, civil society and democratic governance, and political corruption. Warren is author of Democracy and Association (Princeton University Press, 2001), editor of Democracy and Trust (Cambridge University Press, 1999), and co-editor of Designing Deliberative Democracy: The British Columbia Citizens' Assembly (Cambridge University Press, 2008). Warren's work has appeared in journals such as the American Political Science Review, the American Journal of Political Science, and Political Theory. He is currently working with an international team on a project entitled Participedia (www.participedia.net http://www.participedia.net), which uses a web-based platform to collect data about democratic innovation and participatory governance around the world.