ABSTRACT
Deliberative democracy is a form of democracy in which deliberation is central to decision-making. It adopts elements of both consensus decision-making and majority rule. Deliberative democracy differs from traditional democracy in that authentic deliberation, not mere voting, is the primary source of legitimacy for the law. Deliberative democracy holds that, for a democratic decision to be legitimate, it must be preceded by authentic deliberation, and not merely the aggregation of preferences that occurs in voting.
