User:Hero49states/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Deliberative democracy

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I chose this Wikipedia article because participatory democracy is related to our class' focus on open democracy. Many of the principles of deliberative democracy are discussed in our readings, and we can consider open democracy as partly evolved from that side of the literature. Overall, I think the article provides a sufficient overview of the main contributions to the theory of deliberative democracy. Though I would have appreciated a more clear explanation on deliberation without having to click on other articles.

Evaluate the article
Evaluate Content

For the most part, most of the content seems relevant. The subsection of "The agonistic perspective on deliberative democracy" seems to not fit in the section of "Characteristics" because that subsection focuses more on discussing an opposite of deliberative democracy. Some information from Benjamin Barber and Helene Landemore could improve the nuance on the different variations of deliberative democracy.

Evaluation Tone

The article is very neutral as it provides an overview of the major contributions by different political theorist. The only line I am ambivalent on the political leaning is in this sentence: In these cases, deliberative democracy is not connected to left-wing politics but is intended to create a conversation among people of different philosophies and beliefs. Future editors should try to find out if scholars have said it is not left-wing politics. If no citation is found, then it would be best to remove that sentence since it seems it cast a value judgement on deliberative democracy.

Evaluation Sources


 * Most of the links work, but some are no longer working. However, an archived copy has been made available. Because many of the theorist have their own personal views, it is hard to say that the authors are neutral or unbiased, but the article makes sure to specify it is an author's point of view or that there is no consensus on the matter. There are still some sections that require citations, but there are notices that citations are needed.

Checking the Talk Page


 * Many of the confirmations revolved around updating links or outdated passages. However, there was a really deep discussion on the actual definition of deliberative democracy on whether it was representative or direct. This is very interesting because it is something I have caught on for my own readings for class where authors provide different perspectives on the matter. The article is rated as C-class, and is part of the WikiProject Politics, WikiProject Philosophy / Ethics, and WikiProject Sociology.