Formal Models

Abstract

Abstract Advocates of deliberative democracy generally do not see much for formal models of political interaction. This is a mistake both historically and analytically. It reflects a common misunderstanding of formal models of collective choice and strategic interaction and their uses. Like political scientists more generally, political theorists use formal models for conceptual rather than directly empirical purposes. Indeed, empirical inquiry cannot get off the ground absent conceptual clarity of the sort that models afford. This chapter illustrates the use of formal models in the context of empirical assessment of deliberative democracy, by focusing on what advocates of deliberation might mean by a concept basic to their enterprise: ‘agreement’.