Review of Can Deliberation Cure the Ills of Democracy?

A pragmatic toolbox to promote a more deliberative society

James S. Fishkin has been one of the most consistent advocates of deliberative democracy for more than three decades. With Can Deliberation Cure the Ills of Democracy? he delivers what may be his most ambitious and mature work to date: not just a defence of Deliberative Polling (DP), but a wide-ranging attempt to imagine how we might construct a deliberative society by leveraging a variety of different innovations. The book is less a single-issue argument and more a toolbox for readers, offering multiple democratic innovations tested in practice, from mini-publics and ballot proposition reviews to experiments in schools, corporations, voting reforms, and digital platforms.