College Students and Deliberation: A Benchmark Study

Abstract

Deliberative democracy is often seen as a potential antidote to political alienation in the United States. This paper focuses attention on the potential of deliberation for citizenship training in the academy. We review literature on political alienation among college students, the pros and cons of deliberation, and deliberation's potential in the college classroom. We offer lessons learned from case studies of courses in communication and political science to demonstrate the degree to which problems faced with deliberation in the wider population manifest themselves in the classroom. Finally, we offer examples of how these problems might be overcome.