[WS:] I think that problem is not with the concept of deliberative democracy, but with the utopianism associated with it. Deliberative democracy is like motherhood - most people are in favor. The subject has been studied to death and its strengths and weaknesses (chief of them being impracticality of every day application and susceptibility to being hijacked by trolls,) are well known. I do not think there is much that can be added to this. The process itself is practiced in this country at virtually every community meeting convened by local governments, and most management gurus recommend it in one form or another as a good team problem solving practice.
What I criticize is the utopian belief that if we only adhere to some nice principle, and implement that principle in small group interaction, everything will be just peachy. Since my comments on this subject appear flippant to many on this list, let me quote what certain German guru had to say in this regard:
"The significance of Critical-Utopian Socialism and Communism bears an inverse relation to historical development. In proportion as the modern class struggle develops and takes definite shape, this fantastic standing apart from the contest, these fantastic attacks on it, lose all practical value and all theoretical justification. Therefore, although the originators of these systems were, in many respects, revolutionary, their disciples have, in every case, formed mere reactionary sects. They hold fast by the original views of their masters, in opposition to the progressive historical development of the proletariat. They, therefore, endeavour, and that consistently, to deaden the class struggle and to reconcile the class antagonisms. They still dream of experimental realisation of their social Utopias, of founding isolated “phalansteres”, of establishing “Home Colonies”, or setting up a “Little Icaria”(4) — duodecimo editions of the New Jerusalem — and to realise all these castles in the air, they are compelled to appeal to the feelings and purses of the bourgeois. By degrees, they sink into the category of the reactionary [or] conservative Socialists depicted above, differing from these only by more systematic pedantry, and by their fanatical and superstitious belief in the miraculous effects of their social science." (The Communist Manifesto, Ch. 3)
The problem with the US is not that it lack deliberative democracy - au contraire it has plenty of it. The problem with the US is its class structure and the fact that the business class has the power to hijack the deliberative democracy process and drown every meaningful opposition voice with endless chatter.
Wojtek