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summary for discerning and understanding power, which is especially instructive in studying

disagreement and tension that is often found as an occurrence within deliberative dialogue groups.

• Power is (often) expressed through language.

• Power cannot be explained without conceptualization.

• Power is relational, dynamic and contestable.

• The interconnectedness of language and society can also be seen in the display of power.

• Freedom of action is needed to exercise power.

• The restriction of an interactant’s action-environment often leads to the exercise of power.

• The exercise of power involves a latent conflict and clash of interests, which can be

obscured because of a society’s ideologies. (p. 39)

Locher (2004) clearly explained the concept of power and the resulting effects of this

phenomenon within the context of one-to-one and group discussions by skillfully citing the

linkages between power displays and language and observing how each is exercised among

individuals experiencing disagreement or conflict. Locher’s research thus considered power as a

“social phenomenon that can occur in any kind of situation where two people interact” (p. 2).

Deliberative democracy theorists generally exclude passion from the discussion of rational

discourse and communication, on the premise that such displays of ideas and opinion are irrational.

To the contrary, Hall has made the case that “a [more] endemic problem for deliberative theory

stems from the supreme value it places on calm rational discussion, to the exclusion of emotionally

laden speech and passionate protest” (p. 81). Hall’s (2007) research raised the question of the

significance of emotion and thought through an insightful review of rational discourse from the

perspective of passion and reason in the course of deliberative democracy. Hall’s working

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