Political communication in media society: the impact of normative theory on empirical research

Abstract

I first compare the deliberative to the liberal and the republican models of democracy, and consider possible references to empirical research then examine what empirical evidence there is for the assumption that political deliberation develops a truthtracking potential. I argue that mediated political communication in the public sphere can facilitate deliberative legitimation processes in complex societies only if it gains independence from its social environments and if there is a feedback between an informed elite discourse and a responsive civil society.