1. CCST 2110 Rhetoric in politics, old and new

2. Rhetoric and Politics The domain of rhetoric: the probable, opinion, belief…the stuff of politics. Aristotle’s Zoon Politicon Political Style

3. Deliberative Rhetoric (as opposed to Forensic or epideictic) Critics of Democracy, from the left and the right agree that deliberation could save the day for democratic institutions. (effective deliberation) --deliberation instead of focus groups, monologues to empty chambers, or the ‘mischief of factions’ Indeed, most political and legal theorists place Western democracies at a transitional moment--to Delberative Democracy. (remember Athens…)

4. Deliberative Democracy Political decision making is legitimate insofar as its policies are produced in a process of public discussion and debate in which citizens and their representatives, going beyond mere self-interest, deliberate on their common good. This presupposes that we all have the same terms and would recognise the same ground rules for debate and rhetoric, that we have a notion of public good

5. Disagreements about how to deliberate We’re not in Athens any longer Toto… • Representative democracy (aggregate individual expressions of belief) • Consensus conferences, citizens juries • New media deliberation (online)

6. The spin-offs of deliberation • Publics and counterpublics (activism) • Identification of an increasing number of social ‘risks’: the so-called ‘Risk Society’ • “Media Panics” • Questions about what can be deliberated and what can’t • Disagreements about ground rules (again)