Democratic Resilience in Retreat: Australia’s Response to the 2002 Bali Bombings

This article takes democratic resilience as a means of exploring the quality of public dialogue following a violent extremist attack. Drawing on the normative theory of deliberative democracy, it argues that democratic resilience requires meaningful deliberations in the public sphere following extremist attacks. It focuses on the responses of political leaders and news media in Australia regarding the aftermath of the 2002 Bali bombings in Indonesia and asks whether and to what extent these responses fostered democratic resilience. A critical discourse analysis of these responses suggests that although the initial political discourse emphasised democratic values and multiculturalism, this rhetoric did not translate into practice. The initial messages of harmony and tolerance were lost in subsequent discourses of national unity, national sacrifice and collective responsibility, which emphasised an ‘us versus them’ narrative, and reinforced racial prejudices. As a result, the public sphere lacked the reflective and inclusive dialogue needed to foster democratic resilience.