Events

Guest Speaker: David Vitale, Warwick Law School

Title: 'Towards Theoretical Clarity on Trust's Role in Deliberative Mini-Publics'

Abstract: As part of the “deliberative turn” in the democracy literature, political and constitutional theorists have become increasingly interested in deliberative mini-publics (DMPs). These DMPs, which include citizens’ assemblies, deliberative polls, and citizens’ juries, are on the rise globally. Often hailed the solution to the growing public discontent with government actors, and disenchantment with democracy, countries like the UK, Canada, Iceland, Chile, and Switzerland have turned to DMPs to decide a range of policy issues. And theorists have therefore debated, among other matters, whether, and in what format, to institutionalise these DMPs. Trust is central to these debates. The theoretical literature is filled with references to “trust”, as well as “distrust”, “mistrust”, and “trustworthiness”, with theorists relying heavily on these concepts to describe and justify their arguments on DMPs. Despite this, there is a lack of clarity about the role trust plays in the literature, including what “trust” means. Given how heavily theorists rely on trust, this lack of clarity is problematic, muddling the debates and undermining the relevant arguments. This paper responds to this weak point in the literature. First, it examines how theorists have used trust in their arguments, showing not only trust’s centrality to these arguments but also providing a helpful typology of the functions it serves in them. Second, it contends that theorists, under-conceptualising trust in their arguments, have failed to appreciate several distinctions that are fundamental to understanding trust’s role in DMPs. And following on from trust’s centrality and functions, these failures, it is argued, have significant implications for the relevant arguments. (Part of the project Open Constitutional Democracy)