Page "Deliberative democracy" Paragraph 4

Deliberative democracy can be practiced by decision-makers in both representative democracies and direct democracies.

In elitist deliberative democracy, principles of deliberative democracy apply to elite societal decision-making bodies, such as legislatures and courts ; in populist deliberative democracy, principles of deliberative democracy apply to groups of lay citizens who are empowered to make decisions.

One purpose of populist deliberative democracy can be to use deliberation among a group of lay citizens to distill a more authentic public opinion about societal issues but not directly create binding law ; methods such as the deliberative opinion poll have been designed to achieve this goal.

Another purpose of populist deliberative democracy can be to serve as a form of direct democracy, where deliberation among a group of lay citizens forms a " public will " and directly creates binding law.

If political decisions are made by deliberation but not by the people themselves or their elected representatives, then there is no democratic element ; this deliberative process is called elite deliberation.