Background: Public deliberation can be used in a number of decision-making processes to make the health system more responsive to public values, and to help inform and refine health system policy decisions. This study evaluates how the McMaster Health Forum implements the key elements of public deliberation and identifies both areas of strength and potential areas for improvement. Methods: An evaluative case study approach was used. Data were collected from three sources: quantitative and open-ended responses to questionnaires from 19 panels (200 respondents); panel summaries from 13 panels; and transcripts of 2 panel deliberations. Thematic analysis was used to assess four key elements of deliberation: the representativeness of participants, the information supports provided to them, the procedural criteria used, and the focus on explicit reasoning in coming to conclusions. Results: Participants felt that the McMaster Health Forum recruited a representative sample of participants based on gender and diversity of opinion. However, participants noted that the panels could be improved by striving for more age and ethnocultural diversity while also including health professionals or policymakers. Participants mostly occupied the role of a ‘consumer’ of health services. They viewed the information presented in citizen briefs as credible but had questions about the brief-development process. Procedurally, the panels fostered openness without impeding consensus and facilitators fostered mutual respect among participants. Finally, the groups incorporated values, showed an ability to come to a deeper understanding of policy options and harnessed the diverse experiences of their fellow participants as they reasoned. Discussion: This case study is part of a larger evaluation process that assesses all of the McMaster Health Forum citizen panels which aim to elicit citizens’ values and preferences about health system issues in Canada. The framework used to assess the public deliberation process can be used to evaluate other processes in the future. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

Submitted by Tatiana Lima (tatianasl@ufba.br) on 2016-10-11T20:53:21Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Novaes, Flávio Santos.pdf: 1569915 bytes, checksum: e2ec2286f432c8c17766d42d09e1b7f5 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Tatiana Lima (tatianasl@ufba.br) on 2017-02-15T19:03:55Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Novaes, Flávio Santos.pdf: 1569915 bytes, checksum: e2ec2286f432c8c17766d42d09e1b7f5 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-02-15T19:03:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Novaes, Flávio Santos.pdf: 1569915 bytes, checksum: e2ec2286f432c8c17766d42d09e1b7f5 (MD5) / Esta pesquisa analisa a efetividade deliberativa de conselhos gestores de habitação em três municípios baianos: Salvador, Vitória da Conquista e Camaçari. Para tanto, recorre a técnicas qualitativas como entrevistas, pesquisa documental e observação, e se classifica como um estudo de caso múltiplo. O estudo discute os limites da democracia representativa brasileira, ainda com traços autoritários, conservadores e centralizadores do Estado, apesar dos esforços de movimentos sociais e de gestores públicos para ultrapassá-los, introduzindo instituições participativas na gestão pública. Para compreender os meios de ampliação da democracia representativa e o papel que os conselhos municipais de habitação podem exercer, este estudo utiliza conceitos como democracia participativa e deliberativa, deliberação pública e efetividade deliberativa. O objetivo é avaliar a efetividade deliberativa dos conselhos municipais de habitação, mediante a deliberação, aprovação e fiscalização de políticas públicas que supostamente contribuiriam para a universalização do direito à moradia e a solução de sérios problemas habitacionais dos municípios. Foram utilizadas categorias de análise como o contexto de criação desses fóruns e a ação da gestão municipal para assegurar seu caráter deliberativo, a ação de representantes da sociedade civil nas discussões e deliberações, a influência de interesses do capital imobiliário e da construção civil sobre as políticas municipais de habitação, e os efeitos das políticas habitacionais das esferas federal e estadual sobre as políticas municipais e os seus conselhos. Os resultados da pesquisa indicam que os conselhos de habitação não apresentam efetividade deliberativa na universalização do acesso à moradia de interesse social, pois carecem do apoio de gestões municipais, que não liberam recursos financeiros para os fundos de habitação, não convocam regularmente as reuniões ou não implementam integralmente suas deliberações. Os conselhos gestores e as políticas locais de habitação sofrem a influência indireta de interesses do capital imobiliário e da construção civil, interessados em projetos padronizados e de grande porte, a despeito de projetos diversificados de requalificação urbana em comunidades carentes. Os conselhos de habitação também perdem sua capacidade deliberativa quando os municípios dependem de transferências de recursos e se resumem à mera operacionalização de políticas habitacionais aprovadas por outros entes da federação. Assim, o caráter deliberativo dos conselhos de habitação é comprometido pelos resquícios autoritários e centralizadores do Estado brasileiro, pelo controle desses fóruns por representantes da gestão municipal, nem sempre comprometidos com sua democratização e com o seu fortalecimento, revelando uma assimetria de poder e de recursos, o despreparo técnico e político de conselheiros que representam segmentos da sociedade civil. Esses fatores impedem o avanço em direção a uma democracia participativa ou deliberativa, configurando o que conceituo como pós-participativismo na gestão pública. / This research analyzes the deliberative effectiveness of housing councils in three municipalities in Bahia: Salvador, Vitoria da Conquista and Camaçari. In order to accomplish this, it uses qualitative techniques such as interviews, documentary research and observation, and is classified as a multiple case study. This study discusses the limits of Brazilian representative democracy, still with authoritarian traits, conservative and centralized state, despite the efforts of social movements and public managers to overcome them, introducing participatory institutions in public administration. To understand the expansion of means of representative democracy and the role that municipal housing councils can exercise, this study uses concepts such as participatory and deliberative democracy, public deliberation and deliberative effectiveness. The objective is to evaluate the deliberative effectiveness of housing councils through deliberation, approval and monitoring of public policies that supposedly contribute to the universal right to housing and the solution of serious housing problems of municipalities. Further, categories of analysis were used as the context of creating these forums and the action of municipal management to ensure its deliberative character, the action of civil society counselors in their discussions and deliberations, the influence of interests of real estate capital on municipal housing policies, and the effects of housing policies at the federal and state levels on municipal policies and their councils. In addition, research results indicate that housing councils do not have deliberative effectiveness in universal access to housing of social interest because they lack the support of municipal administrations, which do not release budget for housing funds, do not regularly convene meetings or do not fully implement its deliberations. The management councils and local housing policies suffer the indirect influence of real estate capital interested in standard designs and large scale projects, despite diverse projects of urban regeneration in disadvantaged communities. Also, Housing councils lose their deliberative capacity when municipalities rely on funds transfers and reduce to mere operationalization of housing policies adopted by other federal entities. Thus, the deliberative character of housing councils is committed by Brazil's authoritarian remnants; the control of these forums by representatives of the municipal administration, not always compromised to democratization and its strengthening, revealing an asymmetry of power and resources, and civil society counselor’s lack of technical and political skills. These factors thwart progress toward a participatory or deliberative democracy, setting up what I conceptualize as ‘pós-participativismo’ in public management.

Durante as Ãltimas dÃcadas, parte dos debates que cercam a interface mantida entre ComunicaÃÃo e PolÃtica se concentrou em avaliar a capacidade dos media digitais como instrumentos capazes de fomentar a participaÃÃo. Seguindo tal direÃÃo, esta pesquisa propÃe examinar como determinados mecanismos de comunicaÃÃo digital vÃm sendo empregados sob a perspectiva de um projeto autoconstruÃdo atravÃs da colaboraÃÃo. A WikipÃdia, objeto deste trabalho, à uma enciclopÃdia livre, um sistema do qual mÃltiplos agentes podem participar, seja escrevendo verbetes ou editando conteÃdos jà existentes. Destaque-se que a modificaÃÃo colaborativa dos verbetes abre a possibilidade de realizaÃÃo de um debate pÃblico (abrigado nas pÃginas de discussÃo exclusivas para cada tema) acerca do teor das informaÃÃes que sÃo tornadas disponÃveis aos usuÃrios. As questÃes especÃficas que guiam a pesquisa sÃo: Quais sÃo os impactos na quantidade de acessos e de ediÃÃes de certas biografias quando se tem no horizonte uma corrida eleitoral acirrada? De que maneira se dÃo os debates em torno da elaboraÃÃo dos verbetes dos principais candidatos que concorreram à Prefeitura de SÃo Paulo em 2012? O corpus empÃrico consiste de trÃs verbetes disponÃveis na enciclopÃdia, relativos principais candidatos que disputaram a Prefeitura da cidade de SÃo Paulo em 2012, a saber, âCelso Russomannoâ, âFernando Haddadâ e âJosà Serraâ. Metodologicamente, opta-se por uma abordagem que conta com duas dimensÃes, uma quantitativa e outra qualitativa. A anÃlise quantitativa considera o intervalo entre 2008 e 2012, explorando os Ãndices de page views e as tendÃncias das ediÃÃes. Jà o exame qualitativo investiga, a partir de elementos da Teoria Deliberativa, a colaboraÃÃo e a deliberaÃÃo pÃblica em torno dos trÃs artigos, delimitando-se ao perÃodo de 2012. A intenÃÃo à compreender a WikipÃdia para alÃm dos seus diagnÃsticos meramente instrumentais: acredita-se que as formas de uso de tal plataforma refletem, de alguma maneira, o contexto e a cultura polÃtica local e/ou nacional. Concluiu-se que o contexto das eleiÃÃes acaba influenciando a dinÃmica das ediÃÃes realizadas na WikipÃdia. AlÃm disso, à possÃvel observar um notÃvel aumento na quantidade de modificaÃÃes e nos acessos aos verbetes aqui investigados. Verifica-se que os usuÃrios que mais editam sÃo os mesmos que mais buscam o debate nas pÃginas de discussÃo. No entanto, do ponto de vista deliberativo, as pÃginas de discussÃo dos verbetes desses candidatos apresentaram poucos debates. O contexto das eleiÃÃes apresenta limitaÃÃes no que diz respeito a discussÃes racionais, visto que o objetivo de parte dos usuÃrios à convencer os outros wikipedistas sobre os aspectos positivos dos seus candidatos ou acerca das caracterÃsticas negativas dos adversÃrios. / Over the last decades, part of the debates surrounding the interface between Communication and Politics maintained focused on evaluating the ability of digital media as instruments to encourage participation. Following this direction, this research proposes to examine how certain digital communication mechanisms have been employed from the perspective of a self-built project through collaboration. Wikipedia, the subject of this work, is a free encyclopedia, a system in which multiple agents can participate, either writing or editing existing entries contents. It should be emphasized that collaborative modification of entries opens the possibility of holding a public debate (housed in the pages of exclusive thread for each theme) about the content of information that is made available to users. The specific questions guiding the research are: What are the impacts on the amount of hits and editions of some biographies when you have a tight election race? In what way are given the debates surrounding the drafting of the entries of the main candidates who ran for mayor of Sao Paulo, in 2012? The empirical corpus consists of three entries available in the encyclopedia, relating to the main candidates competing to be mayor of the city of SÃo Paulo in 2012: âCelso Russomannoâ, âFernando Haddadâ e âJosà Serraâ. Methodologically, we chose an approach that has two dimensions: quantitative and qualitative. The quantitative analysis considers the interval between 2008 and 2012, exploring the contents of page views and trends of editions. The qualitative examination investigates, from elements of Deliberative Theory, collaboration and public deliberation on the three articles, studying the period 2012. The intention is to understand Wikipedia beyond its purely instrumental diagnostics: we believe ways to use this platform reflect in any way, the context and the local and/or national political culture. It was concluded that the context of the elections eventually influenced the dynamics of edits made on Wikipedia. Furthermore, it is possible to observe a notable increase in the amount of modifications and accesses to entries investigated here. It appears that the more users who edit are the same as more seek debate on talk pages. However, from the point of deliberative view, the discussion pages of the entries of these candidates had few discussions. The context of election has limitations with respect to rational discussion, since the goal of the users is to convince other âwikipediansâ on the positive aspects of their candidates or on the negative characteristics of opponents.

This study investigates the impact of an online community's control structure on the knowledge sharing process in that community. Using a framework comprised of legitimate peripheral participation theory and the weak-ties phenomenon, the study focuses on a comparative analysis of self-organizing online communities (e.g., weblog networks) and centralized online communities (e.g., discussion forums communities) with respect to the efficacy of knowledge sharing in these communities. The findings of this study indicate that self-organizing communities of practice have more weak-ties among their members compared to centralized communities. As per weak-ties theory of Granovetter (1973, 1983), these findings suggest that self-organizing communities facilitate greater dissemination of knowledge and flow of information among their members than centralized communities. The abundance of weak-ties in their community structure also makes self-organizing communities better environments for the discovery of new information compared to centralized community environments. This study did not find any evidence of community structure impact on peripheral participation and the interaction activity level among peripheral participants of a given online community. These observations may have stemmed from the limitations of research design, however, it is safe to say as of now that verdict on peripheral participation differences in different community structures is inconclusive at best. / Master of Science

Submitted by JOSIANE SANTOS DE OLIVEIRA (josianeso) on 2017-10-04T14:02:31Z No. of bitstreams: 1 José Carlos de Castro Dantas_.pdf: 1311441 bytes, checksum: a765d1fddb4b6e12d592013a80b9106e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-10-04T14:02:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 José Carlos de Castro Dantas_.pdf: 1311441 bytes, checksum: a765d1fddb4b6e12d592013a80b9106e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-06-09 / UEMA – Universidade Estadual do Maranhão / A tese básica dessa pesquisa toma a democracia deliberativa pública como paradigma teórico e como recurso político relevante para as democracias moderno-contemporâneas plurais e complexas. É fato histórico que, na heterogênica construção da democracia ocidental estabelecida como regime político mais apropriado, esse modelo deliberativo pode constituir-se atualmente em notável proposição de ethos e práxis democrática e, consequentemente, como objeto de intensos debates. Seus defensores advogam, comumente, que aquilo que é considerado do interesse comum seja resultado dos processos de deliberação coletiva, racional e equitativa entre indivíduos livres e iguais. Além disso, a democracia deliberativa é uma concepção de governo democrático que prioriza a discussão racional na vida política. Princípios associados do liberalismo rawlsiano, tais como o da preservação das liberdades subjetivas, da pluralidade e da razão pública, e do republicanismo pettitiano da liberdade como não dominação positiva fundamentando a democracia, são contributos relevantes considerados à luz racionalidade e dos princípios discursivos habermasianos os quais fundamentam a concepção deliberativo-procedimental no âmbito correlacional do direito e da política. Nesse contexto, o orçamento participativo de Porto Alegre, calcado no histórico associativismo local e na vontade política da Administração Popular entre 1990 e 1996 cujos procedimentos metodológico-discursivos estabeleceram que cidadãos livres e iguais habilitam-se, de cooperações institucionais, a debates, avaliações e decisões em torno dos interesses públicos, foi tomado nessa pesquisa como modelo exemplar de possibilidade deliberação democrática pública. / The basic thesis of this research takes public deliberative democracy as a theoretical paradigm and as a relevant political resource for pluralistic and complex modern contemporary democracies. It is a historical fact that, in the heterogeneous construction of Western democracy established as the most appropriate political regime, this deliberative model can now constitute a remarkable proposition of ethos and democratic praxis and, consequently, as the object of intense debates. Its defenders commonly advocate that aspects considered of common interest have to be a result of processes of rational, equitative and collective deliberation between free and equal individuals. Moreover, deliberative democracy is a conception of democratic government that prioritizes rational discussions in political life. In the Habermasian theory, in particular, contributions such as the Rawlsian liberalism, concerning preservation of subjective freedoms and public reason, and the Pettitian republicanism, related to freedom as positive non-domination, are considered within the context of rationality and discoursive principles, which ground the deliberative-procedural conception on the correlacional scope of law and politics. The context of the Porto Alegre participatory budgeting, based in the historical and local associativism and in the political will of the Popular Administration, whose metodological-discoursive procedures established that free and equal citizens qualify themselves, within the context of institutional cooperations, to debates, evaluations and decisions of public interests, was taken in this research as an exemplary model of possibility of public democratic deliberation.

No description available.

En cette ère de «nouvelle santé publique», les professionnels sont exhortés à détourner leur attention de l’individu afin de pouvoir mettre l’accent sur les déterminants sociaux de la santé. Un phénomène contraire s’opère dans le domaine des sciences biomédicales, où un mouvement vers la santé personnalisée permet d’envisager des soins préventifs et curatifs adaptés à chaque individu, en fonction de son profil de risque génétique. Bien qu’elles n’aient que partiellement fait leur entrée dans notre système de santé, ces avancées scientifiques risquent de changer significativement le visage de la prévention, et dans cette foulée, de susciter des débats de société importants. L'étude proposée vise à contribuer à une réflexion sur l'avenir d'une des fonctions essentielles de la santé publique en tentant de mieux comprendre comment le public perçoit la prévention basée sur le risque génétique. Ce projet de recherche qualitative consiste en l'analyse secondaire des échanges ayant eu lieu lors de quatre ateliers délibératifs auxquels ont participé des membres du public d'horizons divers, et durant lesquels ceux-ci ont débattu de la désirabilité d'une technologie préventive fictive, le «rectificateur cardiaque». La théorie de la structuration d'Anthony Giddens est utilisée comme cadre conceptuel guidant l’analyse des échanges. Celle-ci permet d’émettre les trois constats suivants: a- le « rectificateur cardiaque » est loin d’être interprété par tous les participants comme étant une intervention préventive; b- son utilisation est perçue comme étant légitime ou non dépendamment principalement des groupes de personnes qu’elle viserait; c- l’intervention proposée ne se pense pas hors contexte. / In this era of «new public health», professionals are urged to shift their attention away from individuals and to pay greater attention to the social determinants of health. In the field of biomedical sciences, a movement in the opposite direction towards personalised health might allow for preventive and curative care tailored to each individual, according to their genetic risk profile. While scientific advances in the field of genomics have only begun to pave their way into our healthcare system, they carry the potential to change the face of prevention and give rise to important societal debates. This study’s aim is to contribute to a reflection on the future of one of the essential functions of public health by exploring public perceptions of prevention based on genetic risk. This qualitative research project consists of a secondary analysis of the content of exchanges which occurred between members of the public in the context of four deliberative workshops, during which they debated on the desirability of a fictive preventive technology, the «cardiac rectifier». Anthony Giddens’ theory of structuration is used as a conceptual framework to guide the analysis of the exchanges, which led to the following findings: a- the «cardiac rectifier» is far from being interpreted as a preventive intervention by every participant; b- its use is perceived as being legitimate or not on the basis of which group of individuals it would target; c- the proposed intervention cannot be thought of out of context.

Com a redemocratização do país, após prolongados anos de regime ditatorial, foram instituídos vários instrumentos de participação popular por meio da Constituição da República Federativa do Brasil de 1988 e de outras legislações infraconstitucionais, com a finalidade de dar sustentabilidade ao regime democrático instaurado no país. Nesse contexto, despontou o orçamento participativo, como um instrumento de cogestão, entre o Estado e a sociedade civil, com o intuito de compartilhar com a população as decisões referentes ao orçamento público, que caberiam somente ao Poder Executivo. Destarte, os cidadãos participam da elaboração da peça orçamentária, deliberando em espaços públicos sobre investimentos específicos que eles gostariam que fossem executados, bem como as localidades mais urgentes, inovando a democracia representativa clássica e tradicional. Nesse diapasão, essa pesquisa teve como objetivo analisar quais os elementos, presentes nos processos de concepção, implementação e avaliação do orçamento participativo de Cambuí-MG, que potencializam e/ou limitam a vigência de princípios e práticas democráticos no Município, na perspectiva dos representantes da população local. Para atingir esse propósito, foi realizada uma pesquisa qualitativa, tipificada como estudo de caso, pois foram estudados os fenômenos sociais na conjuntura da realização do orçamento participativo. A coleta de dados se deu por meio de entrevistas, observação não participante e pesquisa documental e os dados foram analisados por meio da análise de conteúdo. Os resultados da pesquisa evidenciaram vários elementos fundamentais que contribuíram para o fomento dos princípios e práticas democráticas no Município, durante o processo do orçamento participativo. Os elementos constatados foram a cidadania inclusiva, a pluralidade de atores sociais, a liberdade de expressão, a participação efetiva, o entendimento esclarecido e a igualdade de votos. Também foram corroborados outros elementos que favorecem a consolidação da democracia local, como a vontade política, a capacidade administrativa, o espaço público, a autonomia da população, a deliberação intensa e a linguagem simples, embora haja a necessidade de aprimoramento da experiência, quanto aos critérios e prazos da metodologia utilizada, bem como quanto às informações da prestação de contas. / With the country redemocratization, after long years of dictatorship, were instituted several popular participation instruments by means of the Federal Constitution of 1988 and by others infraconstitutional legislations, in order to give sustainability to the democratic regime established in the country. In this sense, dawned the participatory budgeting, like a co management instrument between the State and the civil society, in order to share with population the decisions concerning the public budget which is up to the Executive Branch. Under these circumstances, the citizens participate in the budget piece elaboration, deliberating in public spaces about specific investments that they would like them to be executed, as well as the most urgent locations, innovating the classic and traditional representative democracy. In this diapason, this research had as objective to analyze which elements, present in conception processes, implementation and evaluation of Cambui-MG participatory budgeting, that potentiate and/or limit the validity of democratic principles and practices in the county, from the perspective of the local representatives. To achieve this purpose, was carried out a research quantitative, typified as case estudy, because the social phenomena in the participatory budgeting conjucture were studied. The data collection was done through interviews, non-participating observation and documentary research, and the data were analyzed through content analysis. The research results demonstrated several fundamental elements that contributed to the promotion of democratics principles and practices in the Municipality, during the participatory budgeting process. The found elements were the inclusive citizenship, the social actors plurality, freedom of speech, effective participation, clear understanding and the equality of votes. Were also corroborated others elements that favor the local democracy consolidation, such as the political will, administrative capacity, public space, population autonomy, intense deliberation and the simple linguage, although there is a need to improve the experience, as regards the criteria and used methodology deadlines, as well as the accountabilty information.

The present study has a threefold aim: First, the theoretical aim is to give a contribution to refinement of the theory of dialogue based feminist ethics, concerning the understanding of judgment and narration within such an ethics.  The study also has an empirical aim, defined as to clarify what kind of knowledge, relevant to the moral judgment of an engaged outsider actor, can be received from dialogical interpretation and analysis of a limited selection of critically reflecting life stories. Third, a methodological aim is defined as to develop an approach to interpretation and analysis of reflecting life stories, which renders the storyteller visible as a reflecting moral subject, and makes the story accessible as a source of knowledge for the moral judgment of an engaged outsider actor. The thesis combines philosophical reflection and argumentation, with a narrative-hermeneutic method for interpretation of life stories, relating the two to each other in a hermeneutic process.  The theoretical reflection draws on Seyla Benhabibs theory of communicative ethics. A dialogue based model for moral justification and a likewise dialogue based model for political legitimacy are at the heart of this universalistic theory, although in combination with a conception of a narratively and hermeneutically constituted context sensitive moral judgment, based on Hannah Arendt’s concept “enlarged thought”. In the reflection, this model is related to other feminist theorizing within the tradition of dialogue based feminist ethics, as found in the works of Iris M. Young, Georgia Warnke and Shari Stone-Mediatore. The empirical study draws on three critically reflecting life stories from Israeli-Palestinian women activists for a just peace. The methodology for interpretation and analysis that is worked out combines dialogical interpretation as presented in Arthur W. Frank’s socio-narratology with a method for structural analysis derived from Shari Stone-Mediatores theory of storytelling as an expression of political resistance struggle. The results show that some stories drawing on marginalized experiences have a potential­ to stimulate further public debate through their capacity to enable a stereoscopic seeing, elucidating a tension between ideologically structured discourse and non-linguistic experience; implying that narrative-hermeneutic competence should be considered crucial for public debate.

This thesis discusses how to enhance the public discussion of moral and political questions. Enhancing public ‘deliberation’ is desirable since it provides citizens with influence, it enables coming to an understanding, and it ensures legitimacy. The concept of ethico-political judgment, with its two conditions, is elaborated on as an ideal that suggests how we should deliberate. In order to understand how we actually deliberate, an empirical inquiry into the public discourse on prenatal diagnosis and screening in the Netherlands and Sweden is conducted. On the basis of Kant’s ethics and his theory of the faculty of judgment, the two conditions for public deliberation are developed. These conditions are the giving of and asking for normative reasons as well as aiming at impartiality of judgment. Normative reasons are prescriptive, universal, and internal and these are related to Kant’s ethics. Impartiality is related to Kant’s ‘enlarged thought’, to think from the standpoint of others, as well as Kant’s practical philosophy. We need to think from the standpoints of others in order to consider whether or not the principle of our action applies to all. Four thematic foci in the public discourse on prenatal diagnosis are investigated – the unborn life, attitudes toward the disabled, implications of new choices, and the limits of medicine. The conclusion is that – if we wish to enhance public deliberation on the basis of the two conditions of ethico-political judgment – we should deal with both interpretive differences over universal principles (such as respect for autonomy and human dignity) and varying representations of ‘the other’ (such as the fetus, disabled persons, mothers-to-be, and future parents). / I denna avhandling diskuteras hur offentlig diskussion kring moraliska och politiska frågor kan intensifieras. Att intensifiera offentlig diskussion är önskvärt för att ge medborgare inflytande, för att främja förståelse och för att skapa legitimitet. Begreppet etisk-politisk bedömning utvecklas som ett ideal för hur vi bör diskutera. För att undersöka hur vi faktiskt diskuterar görs en empirisk undersökning av det offentliga samtalet om fosterdiagnostik i Nederländerna och Sverige. Med utgångspunkt i Kants etik och hans teori om omdömesförmågan utvecklas två villkor för offentlig diskussion. Dessa villkor är att ge och efterfråga normativa skäl och att sträva efter opartiskhet av omdömesförmågan. Normativa skäl är preskriptiva, universella och interna. Begreppet utvecklas utifrån Kants etik. Opartiskhet baseras på Kants ’utvidgade tänkande’: att tänka utifrån andras perspektiv. Denna idé relateras till Kants praktiska filosofi. Det ’utvidgade tänkandet’ innebär att vi tar ställning till om principen som vi väljer för en handling gäller alla. Fyra teman i det offentliga samtalet om fosterdiagnostik analyseras – det ofödda livet, attityder gentemot handikappade, implikationer av nya val och den medicinska praktikens gränser. Slutsatsen är att om vi önskar intensifiera offentlig diskussion med utgångspunkt i de två villkor som utvecklas, bör vi ta itu med tolkningsskillnader när det gäller universella principer (som respekt för autonomi och människovärde) samt olika representationer av ’den andra’ (som fostret, handikappade, gravida kvinnor och blivande föräldrar).