This book has won the Jean Blondel PhD award of the European Consortium for Political Research
(ECPR) and was nominated for the Annual PhD Prize of the Dutch and Flemish Political Science
Associations. Theories on ethnic conflict tend to work on the premise that a deeply divided
public opinion undermines democratic stability and that conflict-ridden polities are not
fertile ground for the development of a strong democracy. Democratic stability in divided
societies is seen to be endangered whenever the demos plays too prominent a role so the
commonly formulated solution is that citizens should remain passive. This book addresses the
role of citizens in such divided societies while they are facing political conflict. It offers
interesting new perspectives on the potential of deliberative democracy as a viable alternative
in the case of deeply divided polities. The author uses cutting-edge data from a deliberative
experiment in Belgium where he gathered Flemings and Walloons to discuss the future of the
country at a moment when the tensions between the linguistic groups were at an historic high.
His findings are insightful and interesting for deliberative theorists and practitioners as
well as for scholars of ethnic conflict.
