On Mon, 26 Sep 2011, Wojtek S wrote:
> [WS:] But this sounds awfully naive. How on Earth are we going to
> have a deliberative democracy in a social environment other than
> department faculty?
Well they already have it at the level of a street occupation, which is a lot larger and more diverse than an academic department.
And in Madrid, which is in many ways their model, it existed on a much larger scale.
> It would be difficult to imagine it working at the university level -
> let alone society at large.
I think they've imagined it pretty clearly, not at the level of society, but at the level of a society-wide social movement. I don't think imagination is the problem. I think you mean it may not be practical. That the underlying presupposition -- that general assemblies, if properly run, will eventually decide important things in a way that feels legitimate and binding and imperative on its participants -- may be wrong, esp. when they get too large or diverse.
Michael