Anne Norton

Politics against History: Temporal Distortions in the Study of Politics

While physicists have advanced theories that directly challenged unidimensional theories of history, the social sciences have held on to older, linear conceptions of historical time, but all this should change. Politics entails the making and remaking of the past, the making and remaking of the future, the inheritance of imagined futures, the recognition of the cyclic and the repetitive, reversals of linear causality, and other strategies and effects at odds with dominant historical conventions. If we are to study politics then we must attend to the broader, less disciplined, relation of politics to history, which is the purpose of the current article.

Inequality is Always in the Room: Language & Power in Deliberative Democracy

Deliberative democracy has the potential to legitimize collective decisions. Deliberations legitimating potential, however, depends on whether those who deliberate truly enter as equals, whether they are able to express on equal terms their visions of the common good, and whether the forms and practices that govern deliberative assemblies advance or undermine their goals. Here, we examine these sources of deliberations legitimating potential. We contend that even in situations of apparent procedural equality, deliberations legitimating potential is limited by its potential to increase normatively focal power asymmetries. We conclude by describing how deliberative contexts can be modified to reduce certain types of power asymmetries, such as those often associated with gender, race, or class. In so doing, we hope to help readers consider a broader range of factors that influence the outcomes of attempts to restructure power relationships through communicative forums.