Deliberative democracy in feminist theory and practice: The case of the Unitary Feminist Assembly of Seville (Spain)

Abstract

Feminist democratic theory has questioned and added complexity to the Habermasian deliberative model. In this article, we conduct a case study on the Unitary Feminist Assembly of Seville through participant observation and ‘active’ interviews. We reflect on the development of the field by discussing six key findings that capture a number of resolved issues in feminist theory. The aim is to verify the presence and relevance of the debates formulated by feminist theoreticians in the assembly and, above all, to check if these debates about deliberative democracy among feminists have a real reflection on feminist practices. We concluded that the concerns feminist theoreticians express about the conditions for the debate are shared, to a greater or lesser extent, by the activists who, moreover, implement measures to enhance participatory equality albeit with important pending challenges.