Page 116 - Mike Ratner CC - WISR Complete Dissertation - v6

Deliberative Democracy and Freedom

Rostboll (2008) explored democratic theory and freedom and investigated the “different

dimensions of freedom that make deliberation possible” (p. 3). He has labeled the relationship

between deliberation and freedom as one of “mutual justification and reciprocal reinforcement”

(p. 3) and posed the question “does deliberative democracy make people more free than other

forms of democracy” (p. 209). Rostboll contended that the idea of freedom within the context of

deliberative democracy encompasses many dimensions. His research on the topic seeks to bring

clarity and understanding to the various intersections of freedom and deliberative democracy.

In particular, Rostboll (2008) developed a theory of deliberative democracy that addresses

the role of political freedom. Regarding freedom and deliberative democracy, he stressed the desire

to protect existing and future freedoms: “Deliberative democratic practices do not merely aim at

protecting existing freedoms but also at interpreting and justifying the freedom that should be

protected” (p. 4). Further, he defined deliberative freedom as the combination of four freedoms

such as public autonomy and self-rule, negative freedom and noninterference; free formation of

political opinions (internal autonomy); and freedom as status. He also distinguished between

dimensions and conceptions of freedom and the concept of political freedom to explain his idea of

deliberative freedom and its relationship to earlier models and linkages between democracy and

freedom. As such, negative freedom refers to using democracy to protect an already understood

and demarcated freedom, vis-à -vis noninterference. Conversely, freedom as status relates the

independence of individuals to create new expressions of being free (MacKinnon, 1989).

Rostboll (2008), in his research on the intersections of freedom and deliberative

democracy, instructed that the aim of deliberative democracy is an exercise of freedom. “It is not

so much aimed at transforming preferences but at securing the transformation of preferences in a

97