Paradoxes of Deliberative Democracy

This paper tries to use the theories of social choice as a light source in order to read in transparency the critical points of the deliberative experiments. The purpose is to reserve to them the same kind of treatment the public choice reserve to the institutions of representative democracy. This approach is based on the fact that deliberative theories do not remain in the empyrean of mere speculations. In their name every day tens of forums are set up that claim their ability to interpret `the choices of the people', `the will of the citizens’. From the social choice perspective, two dimensions seem particularly important in order to construct an analytical typology of the various deliberative practices: the weight of the externalities and the degree of spontaneity of participation.