Can less be more? Leftist deliberative democrats' critique of participatory democracy

Many contemporary democratic theorists now base their conceptions of democr acy not on the value of citizen participation but on deliberation instead. This apparently slight shift in emphasis marks an important change in the c ritical project of democratic theory. Although participatory and deliberati ve democratic theory are in some ways similar, close readings of the recent work of a number of leftist deliberative democrats reveal not only fundame ntal criticisms of their participatory predecessors but a strikingly differ ent assessment of the political world as well. Deliberative democrats striv e to avoid the charge of utopianism so often leveled against participatory theorists; in doing so, however, they lose the power to distinguish critica lly between the potential for democracy and its realization. Deliberative d emocratic theory, therefore, should not be understood as a revision of the participatory project, but rather as an independent and, for now, underdeve loped theory of democracy.