Democracy After Liberalism: Pragmatism and Deliberative Politics [Paperback]

Talisse's book reads well as a succinct account of the greatest problem with democratic dialogue at present, and he sets out to offer a progressive form of compromise based on an epistemological model that seems to be practical in essence, at least potentially. However, I think he might have been too succinct to achieve successfully that which he set out to do.

Unfortunately, Talisse did not want to be bogged down with definitions of democracy. Democracy as we know it has been organic since ancient days, and so that seemed a respectable stance to take. Yet, Talisse seems to fall into his own trap; he includes no description of what he takes democracy to mean for fear of being bridled, but then he seems to assume a fairly narrowly-conceived use of the term. In fact, he seems to equivocate democracy with liberalism, and anti-liberalism with opposition to democracy, from early on (p. 24). This has the unfortunate effect of making Talisse's political purposes transparent from the outset, and his political philosophy more rhetorical in nature as a result.

Similarly, Talisse bases his argument at other points of the book on deriving conceptual equivalences that are not only highly debatable, but often lack the logical flow that might have given him greater credibility. For instance, a social paradigm that gives priority to the community over the individual is not necessarily one that lacks a basis for equality or toleration. There may indeed be a good argument for this, but it is a premise that remains unsubstantiated through the text. In fact, many of Talisse's assumptions seem to be unobjective and ideological in nature. Thus, as he claims that "what is needed is a deliberative account of democracy that is not precommitted to liberal or antiliberal goals," (p. 95), the apparent lack of rigour leaves one wondering as to whether Talisse is capable of the same.

Still, I find this a compelling document and a useful contribution to the problem. There is a ring of truth to some parts of Talisse's thesis -- one which supports the essence of Talisse's suggested solution of a post-liberal deliberative model of democracy. The proposed model now merely stands in need of greater conceptual analysis and theoretical architecture.