Researching Deliberative Democracy: Methods and Approaches

As the field of deliberative democracy continues to grow, methodological questions loom large: Which methods are a good fit for the study of deliberative democracy? How can we translate normative theory into empirical research? Can the methods used for the study of deliberation in small-scale settings be used to assess deliberation at the large scale? This book aims to answer these and many other questions and showcase a variety of methods and approaches used in deliberative democracy research. We identify the strengths and limitations of each method and reflect on how different methods can be combined to generate a comprehensive and multidimensional account of deliberative democracy. As editors of this book, our goal is both ambitious and modest. It is ambitious insofar as we hope to provide a ‘go-to resource’ for anyone wishing to study deliberative democracy. It is modest insofar as we recognize that this book, or any book for that matter, can never be complete in its coverage of methods, especially in a dynamic and growing field of study. Nevertheless, we have put our best efforts into curating a volume that features both established and emerging methods for researching deliberative democracy.