Mary F Scudder
Biographic Data
| ID | 3471004 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Mary F Scudder |
| GIVEN NAMES | Mary F |
| FAMILY NAME | Scudder |
| SIGNATURE | SCUDDER M F |
| AFFILIATIONS | Purdue University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5849-5849 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 108 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Policy responsiveness: Compared to what?
In “On Policy Responsiveness,” Wlezien provides a realist account of policy responsiveness. While recognizing it as a democratic good, he identifies the many obstacles that must be overcome and conditions that must be met to achieve it. Wlezien suggests that “it may be surprising that we observe any representation at all,” considering the many conditions that must be met to achieve it. This raises an important and challenging question, which we e…
Listening as Power in Political Communication
The art of listening in the age of AI
Listening is essential to student learning. But how can instructors build practices of listening into their courses? This article makes the case for adopting a listening-centered approach to university instruction to subvert the dominant “transmission model” of education. It also provides an example of how such an approach can be implemented in practice. Specifically, I present the “plague narrative,” a reflective writing assignment modeled after…
The Two Faces of Democracy: Decentering Agonism and Deliberation
The democratic imagination is facing significant challenges. These challenges involve not only deep philosophical questions about the core values of democracy but also pressing practical issues related to how we should understand and confront the rise of right-wing authoritarian populism. What should our stance be as defenders of democratic life? The two most prominent efforts to orient us here are the deliberative and agonistic models of democra…
Two Faces of Democracy: Decentering Agonism and Deliberation
Institutional listening in deliberative democracy: Towards a deliberative logic of transmission
This article explores the role of institutional listening in deliberative democracy, focusing particularly on its contribution to the transmission process between the public sphere and formal institutions. We critique existing accounts of transmission for prioritizing voice over listening and for remaining constrained by an ‘aggregative logic’ of the flow of ideas and voices in a democracy. We argue that formal institutions have a crucial role to…
Deliberative Democracy, More than Deliberation
What is the relationship between deliberation and democracy? Despite the volumes dedicated to this question, recent admissions by prominent deliberative democrats—that we need not pursue a necessarily deliberative political system, but merely a democratic one—suggest that this remains an open question. Here, I defend the deliberative model’s staying power against those who argue that it has been set normatively adrift. Addressing concerns of “con…
Listening Quality Index
Listening is a key component of meaningfully democratic deliberation. This chapter focuses on the question of how to assess the quality of listening in small-scale communicative interactions. How can empirical research capture democratic listening in a normatively relevant way? This chapter presents the Listening Quality Index (LQI), a flexible and theoretically informed instrument designed to measure and assess the quality of participant listeni…
Measuring Democratic Listening: A Listening Quality Index
Recent political theory in the area of deliberative democracy has placed listening at the normative core of meaningfully democratic deliberation. Empirical research in this area, however, has struggled to capture democratic listening in a normatively relevant way. This paper presents a new, theoretically informed instrument for measuring and assessing listening in deliberation. Here, I tackle the observational challenge of measuring the act of li…
Research Methods in Deliberative Democracy
Research Methods in Deliberative Democracy is the first book that brings together a wide range of methods used in the study of deliberative democracy. It offers thirty-one different methods that scholars use for theorizing, measuring, exploring, or applying deliberative democracy. Each chapter presents one method by explaining its utility in deliberative democracy research and providing guidance on its application by drawing on examples from prev…
Response to Ana Tanasoca’s Review of Beyond Empathy and Inclusion: The Challenge of Listening in Democratic Deliberation
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Beyond Empathy and Inclusion: The Challenge of Listening in Democratic Deliberation
Beyond Empathy and Inclusion: The Challenge of Listening in Democratic Deliberation considers how to improve democracy under the politically divided conditions we currently face. The book argues that while democracy does not require that citizens reach an agreement, it does require that they listen to one another. The book goes on to offer a systematic theory of listening acts to explain the democratic force of listening. Modeled after speech act…
The Ideal of Uptake in Democratic Deliberation
This article explores the concept of deliberative uptake, which I define as the fair consideration of the arguments, stories, and perspectives that citizens share in deliberation. Reinterpreting the democratic force of deliberation, I argue that it comes in large part from uptake, rather than inclusion or influence. As I show, however, citizens often struggle to take up what others have to say, especially those with whom they disagree. These issu…
Beyond Empathy: Strategies and Ideals of Democratic Deliberation
This paper problematizes empathy-centered approaches to deliberation, challenging the feasibility of such approaches as well as the suitability of empathy as a central goal or ideal in models of democratic deliberation. With the deliberative turn in democratic theory came a new emphasis on empathy. Empathy on the part of citizens – the ability to engage in perspective taking and to feel empathic concern for others – is often cited as crucial for …
Teaching Wisdom to Interest: Book Five of Plato's Republic
We suggest that Book Five of the Republic , where Plato discusses the status of women in the guardian class, is a superb source of Platonic insight. For it is precisely the discussion of women that is most vulnerable to co-optation by the modern vernacular of interest, a vernacular to which the Republic is vehemently opposed. If students come to appreciate an alternative perspective regarding this most sensitive of modern issues, the full impact …
The Ideal of Uptake in Democratic Deliberation
This article explores the concept of deliberative uptake, which I define as the fair consideration of the arguments, stories, and perspectives that citizens share in deliberation. Reinterpreting the democratic force of deliberation, I argue that it comes in large part from uptake, rather than inclusion or influence. As I show, however, citizens often struggle to take up what others have to say, especially those with whom they disagree. These issu…
Research Methods in Deliberative Democracy
Research Methods in Deliberative Democracy is the first book that brings together a wide range of methods used in the study of deliberative democracy. It offers thirty-one different methods that scholars use for theorizing, measuring, exploring, or applying deliberative democracy. Each chapter presents one method by explaining its utility in deliberative democracy research and providing guidance on its application by drawing on examples from prev…
Beyond Empathy: Strategies and Ideals of Democratic Deliberation
This paper problematizes empathy-centered approaches to deliberation, challenging the feasibility of such approaches as well as the suitability of empathy as a central goal or ideal in models of democratic deliberation. With the deliberative turn in democratic theory came a new emphasis on empathy. Empathy on the part of citizens – the ability to engage in perspective taking and to feel empathic concern for others – is often cited as crucial for …
Deliberative Democracy, More than Deliberation
What is the relationship between deliberation and democracy? Despite the volumes dedicated to this question, recent admissions by prominent deliberative democrats—that we need not pursue a necessarily deliberative political system, but merely a democratic one—suggest that this remains an open question. Here, I defend the deliberative model’s staying power against those who argue that it has been set normatively adrift. Addressing concerns of “con…
Measuring Democratic Listening: A Listening Quality Index
Recent political theory in the area of deliberative democracy has placed listening at the normative core of meaningfully democratic deliberation. Empirical research in this area, however, has struggled to capture democratic listening in a normatively relevant way. This paper presents a new, theoretically informed instrument for measuring and assessing listening in deliberation. Here, I tackle the observational challenge of measuring the act of li…
Institutional listening in deliberative democracy: Towards a deliberative logic of transmission
This article explores the role of institutional listening in deliberative democracy, focusing particularly on its contribution to the transmission process between the public sphere and formal institutions. We critique existing accounts of transmission for prioritizing voice over listening and for remaining constrained by an ‘aggregative logic’ of the flow of ideas and voices in a democracy. We argue that formal institutions have a crucial role to…
The art of listening in the age of AI
Listening is essential to student learning. But how can instructors build practices of listening into their courses? This article makes the case for adopting a listening-centered approach to university instruction to subvert the dominant “transmission model” of education. It also provides an example of how such an approach can be implemented in practice. Specifically, I present the “plague narrative,” a reflective writing assignment modeled after…
Teaching Wisdom to Interest: Book Five of Plato's Republic
We suggest that Book Five of the Republic , where Plato discusses the status of women in the guardian class, is a superb source of Platonic insight. For it is precisely the discussion of women that is most vulnerable to co-optation by the modern vernacular of interest, a vernacular to which the Republic is vehemently opposed. If students come to appreciate an alternative perspective regarding this most sensitive of modern issues, the full impact …
Beyond Empathy: Strategies and Ideals of Democratic Deliberation
This paper problematizes empathy-centered approaches to deliberation, challenging the feasibility of such approaches as well as the suitability of empathy as a central goal or ideal in models of democratic deliberation. With the deliberative turn in democratic theory came a new emphasis on empathy. Empathy on the part of citizens – the ability to engage in perspective taking and to feel empathic concern for others – is often cited as crucial for …
Beyond Empathy and Inclusion: The Challenge of Listening in Democratic Deliberation
Beyond Empathy and Inclusion: The Challenge of Listening in Democratic Deliberation considers how to improve democracy under the politically divided conditions we currently face. The book argues that while democracy does not require that citizens reach an agreement, it does require that they listen to one another. The book goes on to offer a systematic theory of listening acts to explain the democratic force of listening. Modeled after speech act…
The Ideal of Uptake in Democratic Deliberation
This article explores the concept of deliberative uptake, which I define as the fair consideration of the arguments, stories, and perspectives that citizens share in deliberation. Reinterpreting the democratic force of deliberation, I argue that it comes in large part from uptake, rather than inclusion or influence. As I show, however, citizens often struggle to take up what others have to say, especially those with whom they disagree. These issu…
Response to Ana Tanasoca’s Review of Beyond Empathy and Inclusion: The Challenge of Listening in Democratic Deliberation
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Listening Quality Index
Listening is a key component of meaningfully democratic deliberation. This chapter focuses on the question of how to assess the quality of listening in small-scale communicative interactions. How can empirical research capture democratic listening in a normatively relevant way? This chapter presents the Listening Quality Index (LQI), a flexible and theoretically informed instrument designed to measure and assess the quality of participant listeni…
Measuring Democratic Listening: A Listening Quality Index
Recent political theory in the area of deliberative democracy has placed listening at the normative core of meaningfully democratic deliberation. Empirical research in this area, however, has struggled to capture democratic listening in a normatively relevant way. This paper presents a new, theoretically informed instrument for measuring and assessing listening in deliberation. Here, I tackle the observational challenge of measuring the act of li…
Research Methods in Deliberative Democracy
Research Methods in Deliberative Democracy is the first book that brings together a wide range of methods used in the study of deliberative democracy. It offers thirty-one different methods that scholars use for theorizing, measuring, exploring, or applying deliberative democracy. Each chapter presents one method by explaining its utility in deliberative democracy research and providing guidance on its application by drawing on examples from prev…
The Two Faces of Democracy: Decentering Agonism and Deliberation
The democratic imagination is facing significant challenges. These challenges involve not only deep philosophical questions about the core values of democracy but also pressing practical issues related to how we should understand and confront the rise of right-wing authoritarian populism. What should our stance be as defenders of democratic life? The two most prominent efforts to orient us here are the deliberative and agonistic models of democra…
Two Faces of Democracy: Decentering Agonism and Deliberation
Institutional listening in deliberative democracy: Towards a deliberative logic of transmission
This article explores the role of institutional listening in deliberative democracy, focusing particularly on its contribution to the transmission process between the public sphere and formal institutions. We critique existing accounts of transmission for prioritizing voice over listening and for remaining constrained by an ‘aggregative logic’ of the flow of ideas and voices in a democracy. We argue that formal institutions have a crucial role to…
Deliberative Democracy, More than Deliberation
What is the relationship between deliberation and democracy? Despite the volumes dedicated to this question, recent admissions by prominent deliberative democrats—that we need not pursue a necessarily deliberative political system, but merely a democratic one—suggest that this remains an open question. Here, I defend the deliberative model’s staying power against those who argue that it has been set normatively adrift. Addressing concerns of “con…
The art of listening in the age of AI
Listening is essential to student learning. But how can instructors build practices of listening into their courses? This article makes the case for adopting a listening-centered approach to university instruction to subvert the dominant “transmission model” of education. It also provides an example of how such an approach can be implemented in practice. Specifically, I present the “plague narrative,” a reflective writing assignment modeled after…
Listening as Power in Political Communication
Policy responsiveness: Compared to what?
In “On Policy Responsiveness,” Wlezien provides a realist account of policy responsiveness. While recognizing it as a democratic good, he identifies the many obstacles that must be overcome and conditions that must be met to achieve it. Wlezien suggests that “it may be surprising that we observe any representation at all,” considering the many conditions that must be met to achieve it. This raises an important and challenging question, which we e…
Sociology (11 works) · Political science (10 works) · Politics (10 works) · Democracy (9 works) · Law (9 works) · Social Media and Politics (9 works) · Deliberation (8 works) · Law (8 works) · Psychology (8 works) · Active listening (7 works)