Democratic Dialogue

Democratic dialogue is a specific kind of participatory process which ensues from a practitioner's perspective rather than from a theoretical discourse. It implies a problem-solving process that is used to address sociopolitical and economic-based issues that cannot be adequately and effectively solved by one or several governmental institutions alone.

Dialogue is an open process of communication which is embedded in mutual respect among the participants. The components that form an essential part of a dialogue are listening, learning and problem-solving. Hal Saunders, of the International Institute for Sustained Dialogue and the Kettering Foundation, has suggested that dialogue is based on participants listening deeply to each other's concerns with a willingness to be changed by what they learn through the process.

The outcome of a dialogue is deep-seated qualitative change. In this sense, it is different from a debate, negotiation or deliberation.

Dialogue is different from debate in that it encourages diversity of thinking and opinions rather than suppressing the differing views. In the practice of dialogue, there is a premise that one person's concepts or beliefs [Page 243]would not dominate over those of others, and that each participant should be prepared to hear the other out, not with the intention of winning an argument but with the intent of social inquiry, rather than advocating or arguing one particular viewpoint. Debate, conversely, assumes only one right answer, and the debater is bent on proving that answer at all costs. Debate narrows views and closes minds, but dialogue can build new relationships.

Practitioners also find it useful to contrast dialogue with conflict resolution processes such as mediation and negotiation. Both mediation and negotiation seek a concrete agreement by satisfying the material interests that are dictated by the existing circumstances. But the outcome of dialogue can be broader than this. It can seek to create new avenues and ways for capacity building that would help solve the problem, or it can even bring to the negotiation table actors who generally would not be considered ready for negotiations but who are just as important for peace building.

Dialogue and deliberation are different processes but ones that may feature in resolving the same problem as discrete, complementary steps in a larger, participatory decision-making process.