Chapter 3: Navigating the Deliberative Democracy Labyrinth

In this chapter the authors drilled down on the deliberative democracy Labyrinth, by conducting three structural inquiries, namely: (a) identifying and mapping the requirements for the authentic practice of deliberative democracy, (b) identifying and mapping the barriers that inhibit the implementation of deliberative democracy, and (c) identifying and mapping a set of guidelines, which if adopted and implemented by communities, will enable them to navigate the Labyrinth. The first inquiry led to the discovery that the “root source” for the inability of communities to deal with Problematiques is the lack of commitment to deliberative democracy by organizational leaders. The second inquiry focused on the lack of commitment, and discovered that, even with good intentions by leaders, it is hard to sustain their commitment without methodological support, e.g., the Logosofia platform and the Demosofia Situation Room. The third inquiry focused on identifying those guidelines that should be adopted and implemented for navigating the Labyrinth. By mapping twelve guidelines, it was discovered that the driver for the co-construction of a navigation strategy is the genuine embracing of love and empathy for all the species of planet Earth. In the midst of the localized wars and hostilities among nuclear powers dominating the start of the 21st century, it sounds “utterly utopian” to derive such a conclusion. And yet, systems philosophers of the caliber of West Churchman, have declared that “idealism is the best form of pragmatism.”