Deliberative cultures and mini-publics: an interpretation of the contributions of Jane Mansbridge, Afsoun Afsahi and Cristina Lafont

The field of studies dealing with deliberative democracy has consolidated in the last forty years. However, establishing its genealogy is a task of our times. Even though it was far from successful, the term deliberative democracy was coined by jurist Joseph Bessette in 1980. His intention was to offer a reconstruction of the democratic legacy of the founding fathers of the American constitution. The Oxford Handbook of Deliberative Democracy describes the phases of consolidation of the field of studies around deliberative democracy. According to it, the first phase of transition and theoretical innovation did not take place in 1980 but 1960 thanks to the research of political theorist and feminist critical theory specialist Jane Mansbridge. Mansbridge's findings regarding the effect of inequality on the shaping of public opinion are essential to understand the great concern of political theorists and political scientists in the design of quality indicators of discourse or deliberative reason. This is the case of specialists such as Simon Niemeyer, Francesco Veri, John S. Dryzek and André Bächtiger. Mansbridge's influence is also evident in the research of political scientist Afsoun Afsahi on gender indicators and variables that affect both the will and the capacity to deliberate. A comparative reading of the aforementioned research results taking into account Mansbridge's innovative vision is useful to design mini-publics whose participatory uses respond to some of the functions recently highlighted by Cristina Lafont in her work Democracy without shortcuts.