The Potentials of Public Debate and Deliberative Democracy

The purpose of this research is to assess the potentials and issues revolving around deliberative public debate in Korea. For this, this research sought out whether public debate is able to function normatively as a place that fulfills the conditions of participation and deliberation, which are the core values of deliberative democracy, and whether it is able to function as a place for the formation of democratic opinion and will. Based on the analysis of the '2014 Korean National Public Debate Forum'(2014 Kookmin Daetoronhoe), this research finds as follows: 1) the '2014 Korean National Public Debate Forum' shows the potentialities for deliberative public debate, 2) but in order to settle deliberative public debate, it is necessary to institutionalize public debate and to establish social capital for public debate, 3) to design efficiently deliberative public debate, the various approaches to public debate, the adequate discussion period for debate and a wider use of professional are needed.