This project brings together researchers in the LSE’s Departments of Government and of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method to investigate the contribution that deliberation can make to social cohesiveness.
It does so by addressing a cluster of related issues regarding the properties of deliberation, the mechanisms by which deliberation changes attitudes, and the institutional arrangements that support free and open deliberation.
The project is part of the interdisciplinary Programme on Cohesive Capitalism that is based at the LSE and funded by the Open Society Foundation. More information about this programme is available here.
Research
The project will focus on four main areas of questioning.
How does deliberation contribute to social cohesion? What mechanisms serve to reinforce/weaken it? Under what conditions does open and inclusive deliberation promote shared outlooks and agreement on decisions? Under what conditions does it strengthen/weaken the cohesiveness of social, political and economic arrangements?
What is the relationship between properties of deliberating agents, such as the rationality of their attitudes and how they revise them in response to what others say, and the salient properties of social outcomes, such as the distribution of opinion within society (its heterogeneity/homogeneity for instance), the accuracy of individuals’ belief and the content of individuals’ preferences (especially regarding the circumstances of others in relation to their own).
What is the role of deliberation in supporting effective and legitimate social decision making? How must deliberation be organised and conducted in order for it to do so?
How should deliberative institutions be designed and how can they be built? Which arrangements best promote the accumulation of ‘deliberative capital’ within a society?
Team
Richard Bradley
Professor: Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method
LSE Deliberation Meeting (October 2025): Meeting bringing together scholars within the LSE community working on deliberation and cohesion.
Formal Democratic Theory Workshop (June 2025): Workshop bringing together scholars working at the intersection of democratic theory and formal political theory, featuring contributions from both formal and non-formal approaches to democratic theory, combining normative insight with formal rigor.
LSE Deliberation Meeting (March 2025): Meeting bringing together scholars within the LSE community working on deliberation and cohesion.
LSE Workshop on Health Financing and Deliberation (February 2024): Workshop with academics and participants from the World Health Organization and Civil Society Organisations.
World Bank Annual Health Financing Forum (May 2025): Workshop with senior policymakers from the World Bank, WHO, Malawi's Ministry of Health, South Africa's Treasury and Ministry of Health, Nigeria's Health Commissioner (Ekiti State), India, and the International Budget Partnership (Kenya office).
Ministerial Roundtable on Social Participation in Health (May 2025): Side event at the World Health Assembly 2025 in Geneva, organized in collaboration with Brazil, France, Norway, Slovenia, Thailand, and Tunisia, and supported by WHO staff. Attended by civil society organisations and senior delegations from fifteen member states.
"Voter Education: The Challenge of the Century" (October 2024): LSE Public Event - Richard Bradley and Suzanne Bloks participated as discussants.
Organised Panels
"Deliberative Democracy with New Technologies: Epistemic Perspectives" (August 2025): European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR), Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
"Modelling Deliberative Exchange: The Value of Combining Ideas." Presentation by Kai Spiekermann.
"Multiple Criminal Juries: Jury Deliberations and the Beyond Reasonable Doubt Standard." Presentation by Suzanne Bloks and Andrei Poama.
"Epistemic Democracy" (July 2025): PPE Society London First Annual Meeting, King's College London
"From Epistemic to Generative Democracy." Presentation by Franz Dietrich and Kai Spiekermann.
"Democratic Theory, Polarisation and Partisanship" (July 2025): PPE Society London First Annual Meeting, King's College London
"Who Sets the Agenda? Party Competition in Democratic Theory." Presentation by Suzanne Bloks.
Deliberative Modelling and Theory
"Deliberation and Attitude Change"(November 2025): Invited talk by Richard Bradley at Interdisciplinary Research Seminar of the DFG Graduate Programme "Collective Decision-Making", Universität Hamburg.
"Modelling Deliberation"(June 2025): Presentation by Richard Bradley at Philosophy and Economics 2nd Annual Workshop, University of Bath.
"Modelling Deliberation"(May 2025): Keynote lecture by Richard Bradley at First Annual Reading Philosophy, Politics, and Economics Workshop, University of Reading.
Electoral Systems and Democratic Competition
"Two Forms of Party Competition and Electoral Systems" (September 2025): Presentation by Suzanne Bloks at American Political Science Association (APSA) Annual Meeting, Panel on "Disagreement and Understanding in Democratic Theory", Vancouver.
"Two Forms of Party Competition and Electoral Systems" (August 2025): Presentation by Suzanne Bloks at European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) General Conference, Panel "Political Parties: Necessary Evil or Quintessential to Democracy", Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
"Heterogeneous Electoral Constituencies as Majoritarian Innovation" (May 2025): Presentation by Suzanne Bloks at European Consortium for Political
Research (ECPR) Joint Sessions, Session on "The Political Theory of
Democratic Elections", Charles University Prague.
Jury Deliberation
"Multiple Criminal Juries: Jury Deliberations and the Beyond Reasonable Doubt Assumption" (June 2025): Presentation by Suzanne Bloks and Andrei Poama at the Legal Philosophy Workshop, University of Amsterdam.
"Multiple Criminal Juries: Jury Deliberations and the Beyond Reasonable Doubt Assumption" (January 2025): Presentation by Suzanne Bloks and Andrei Poama at the British and Irish Association for Political Theory (BIAPT) Conference, Session on "Democracy", University of York.
