Electoral campaigns seem every day more dramatic, more antagonistic — for all participants they are zero-sum games in which absolute alternatives are settled. Democratically elected governments flirt with authoritarianism as an increasingly acceptable toolbox of governance, or at least, they do so in a public way that would have been inadmissible before, that would have required at least a patina of hypocrisy in homage to democratic values. Public speeches appeal to highly polarized communities.
What is the place of deliberation in these contemporary democracies? What limitations does political polarization impose on public deliberation? Is it possible to improve legislative and policy-making processes according to standards of debate, logic and the use of scientific evidence?
During June, Proyecto Disonante conducted a training course on “Legislation and dialogue” in which it presented concepts and proposed discussions around these questions. It was a virtual, synchronous course, with theoretical content and practical activities. Participants included political-institutional actors from all over Latin America: legislators, legislative advisors, officials from different levels of government and academic researchers. The National Democratic Institute’s Innovation Network convened Proyecto Disonante to spark this conversation and jointly seek ways to strengthen democratic deliberation and protect it from the attacks of a global climate of extreme polarization.
We want to promote better public conversations that allow citizens to exercise their right to be part of the decision-making process, and prevent these situations from becoming dead ends of antagonism between identities. We hope to repeat and deepen this experience in the near future. We thank NDI and the participants for the opportunity to listen and be listened to.