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emphasis on the common good can often result in pressure on oppressed or disadvantaged groups

to suspend their demands for justice. Although deliberation is meant to be guided by notions of

the common good, it is hard to see how the common good is achieved when deliberation fails to

meet the needs of an entire social group. As Jane Mansbridge explains, when we rule out claims

of self-interest it becomes difficult for participants to truly understand the proceeding, and "the

less powerful may not find ways to discover the prevailing sense of "we" does not adequately

include them." While addressing the forms of internal exclusion described above is undoubtedly

vital to the legitimacy of democratic procedures, threats to this legitimacy may remain even if

participants respect all styles of communication, do not suppress minority concerns in pursuit of

the common good, and all have the same opportunities to speak.

Two strands of feminist writing illuminate the debate on deliberative democracy. One

strand, which celebrates women's greater nurturance, modifies and enriches the deliberative

framework by providing images and models of practice from women's experience. In this view,

women's socialization and role in childrearing, among other causes, makes them especially

concerned to transform "I" into "we" and to seek solutions to conflict that accommodate diverse

and often suppressed desires. More than men, women build their identities through relationships

with friends. Feminist writers propose this capacity for broader self-definition as a model for

democratic politics. (American Prospect, Spring 1990)

Social Issues Dialogue

When I began my research, it focused on the power of dialogue and the intent of the design

for data gathering and subsequent analysis was to focus solely on deliberative process, rather than

the topic and subject of the civic engagement sessions. During the early stages of my research, I

presumed that research into the experiences of self-discovery would bring forth an epiphany of

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