Politicising Theory and Theorising Politics: Deliberative Democracy and Maori-Pakeha Relations

Abstract

This thesis will argue that the theory of deliberative democracy provides the most morally and politically attractive framework for the just ordering of relations between Maori and Pakeha. Deliberative democracy fruitfully combines the virtues of two dominant approaches to theorising indigenous-settler relations, which I term the independent principles-based approach and the democratic processes-based approach.1 It assumes a robust underlying theoretical connection between justice (which I define in terms of ‘recognition’) and democracy. Because of this, I argue that it is far more likely to promote substantively just outcomes for both Maori and Pakeha than aggregative conceptions of democracy. Indeed, a primary concern of this thesis is that the aggregative model of democracy in New Zealand has failed to adequately remedy the legacies of exclusion and marginalisation suffered by Maori and has at time perpetuated them. This thesis argues that because democracy and justice stand in a complex and mutually reciprocating relationship, we require an approach to indigenous rights in which both goods are held in joint focus. That is the dual purpose of this thesis: to identify conception of justice for Maori that accords a central place to democracy, and a view of democracy that can be justice-promoting rather than justice undermining. I also identify ways in which deliberative democracy might be institutionalised in New Zealand.