Professor Cristina Lafont discusses her book, “Democracy without Shortcuts: A Participatory Conception of Deliberative Democracy” on the Global Lunchbox Podcast

The Global Lunchbox Podcast, produced by the Weinberg College Center for International and Area Studies, presents conversations with scholars in the social sciences and humanities about their current research on a range of critical global issues.

In this episode, “Democracy without Shortcuts,” Professor Cristina Lafont of the Department of Philosophy says deliberation is the key for true democracy to be successful.  Lafont discussed that while writing her new book Democracy without Shortcuts: A Participatory Conception of Deliberative Democracy, she investigated how different countries handled the discussion of human rights, politics, and how those topics related to democracy.

She brings up various examples of how, when citizens justify their opinions, they better understand their peers and are more likely to respect their beliefs. For instance, minority groups in Germany were able to reopen the discussion about appropriate attire when there was a ban on wearing headscarves. By approaching the Supreme Court and justifying their opinions, citizens felt heard, and the government reconsidered their decisions.

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