A Preface to Studying Deliberation Empirically

Abstract

This preface to the methodological part discusses how normative theories of deliberation can be studied empirically. Despite major advances in deliberative methodology, the preface identifies two challenges: on the one hand, quantitative work on deliberative processes still struggles with the challenge of causality, requiring the development and application of more sophisticated quantitative designs; on the other hand, there is an urgent need for better understanding the variegated meaning of deliberative acts, requiring more qualitative approaches. The chapter calls for a “problem-based” approach to studying deliberation empirically, combining advanced quantitative and qualitative designs, and suggests that new methodological tools may need to be developed or borrowed from other disciplines.