Recent democratic theories have put a greater emphasis on citizen deliberation and participation in public affairs. Guided by the normative ideals of deliberative democracy, furthermore, empirical research has started blooming and citizen forums and town meetings have become common democratic practices recently.
The core idea of any definition of deliberation concerns free, equal, and rational political discussion — involving disagreement and argumentation — in the public sphere. This idea of deliberation is, arguably, rooted in the Enlightenment traditions of rationality, autonomy, and equality. As such, deliberation theory and practice have been developed predominantly in Western cultural and philosophical contexts. This understanding of deliberation in Western Enlightenment traditions raises an interesting question: Can the model of deliberative democracy ingrained in Western philosophy be applied to Far Eastern Confucian societies that have different cultural assumptions? The present study explores the potential of deliberative democracy in non-Western contexts, such as East Asian societies. Herein, several cultural traits relating to deliberation in collectivist East Asian societies are identified: The lower value of public talk; the strong influence of social position in talk; the increased pressure to conform; and the unique traits of their cognitive and moral reasoning processes. These traits of East Asians pertaining to deliberation originate from the region’s dominant collectivist cultural orientations and from Confucian philosophy. Considering these traits, deliberation in the East Asian context will require special care.
For the empirical portion of this study, a series of small group deliberation sessions among Americans – representing a Western, individualist culture – and Koreans – representing an Eastern, collectivist culture – have been conducted. They deliberated the same issues either in the face-to-face setting or over the Internet. Findings suggest that deliberation, overall, was beneficial to all participants. However, it was observed that deliberation among individualist Americans featured more arguments than collectivist Koreans and was perhaps more deliberative. Individualist Americans also felt more freedom to express their views in the public setting and assessed the deliberation experience more positively than their Korean counterparts. Measures to promote deliberation in East Asian societies and in non-Western cultural contexts in general are discussed.