Author Description

Deliberative Democracy in Australia evaluates the role and performance of this centrepiece of Australian government. It explores the institutional design of the parliament, and its principles and practices, presenting a cogent and compelling case for reform. John Uhr discusses the parliament's representative and legislative roles, and the issue of accountability. He looks at the place of representative assemblies in liberal political theory and measures current institutional performance against the standards appropriate to modern deliberative democracy. Uhr also argues the case for seeing republicanism as a form of deliberative democracy, examining ways in which such democracy might be made more effective and meaningful in Australia.