Deliberative Democracy
Blog #4: Deliberative Democracy
In a society wherein people love to share their own opinions on a particular matter, it is no doubt that a deliberation between them will occur. This is where the idea of deliberative democracy comes in. A type of democracy that shows rational discussions and debate among citizens. And through these exchanges of views, our political preferences are also shaped by a rational reason, and not by political power. However, there are still certain challenges in disengaging rational deliberative discourses.
Social media is one of the means that enable deliberative democracy. Numerous netizens utilize the use of their socmeds to express their own views and opinions on any societal issues. And since it is open for public discussions, it comes with negative outcomes. And I would like to emphasize the problem about people who don’t accept opposing views. They would rather criticize your personal comment about it just because they found your argument’s not justifiable. This is a long-time illness for most people in the world of the internet. We tend to use our emotional intelligence than thinking rationally. And what is always the result of our poor judgment? You would rather ‘cancel’ the person than educating him/her in the right way. This is the underlying problem of having online deliberative discourses. The vulnerability of the ‘cancel culture’ is always bound to happen.
Having these enabling deliberations between groups of people is actually a positive impact within society. It connects people to have conversations and at the same time, healthy discourses. But since there are certain hindrances, toxic conversations are still possible in this field. Invalidating other people’s comments just because you are not pleased with how they deliver it, will always be the number one problem for having a deliberative democracy. Thus, learning how to be open and to accept other’s views/opinions is really a must in order to have a healthy deliberation regarding a certain matter.
References:
Chwalisz, C. (2019). A New Wave of Deliberative Democracy. Retrieved from https://carnegieeurope.eu/2019/11/26/new-wave-of-deliberative-democracy-pub-80422
Curato, N. (2013). Deliberative capacity as an indicator of democratic quality: The case of the Philippines. Retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0192512113504337
Gozum, I. & Pedida, I. (2020). Cancel culture, criticism, and everything in between: PH Twitter in 2020. Rapler. Retrieved from https://www.rappler.com/technology/cancel-culture-criticism-philippines-twitter-yearend-2020
Limos, M. (2020). What Is Cancel Culture?. Esquire. Retrieved from https://www.esquiremag.ph/politics/opinion/what-is-cancel-culture-a00293-20200909-lfrm