Defective Debates

Too loud, too much, too stupid, nobody listens anymore, nobody is willing to change their position, is open to the ideas of others or shows even the slightest hint of good faith. Environmental building regulations, Germany’s position on the war in the Middle East, new regulations on the use of diesel in agriculture, immigration…

There are a whole host of topics that demonstrate just how dysfunctional our political communication is, how impossible it is to foster an open forum in which public opinion can be shaped organically. The general verdict is that the culture of debate in Germany is in a miserable state. In this book, political scientist Julia Reuschenbach and radio journalist Korbinian Frenzel analyse our capacity for debate from the perspective of two experts who are by their occupation obliged to participate in this field. They arrange the broad cast of actors in the field and examine who is falling prey to which illusions. They try to diagnose the defects afflicting the system of public discourse and also identify some of the new challenges on the horizon. Before mapping a way out of the misery, introducing some new ideas, possible solutions and concrete proposals for courses of action.

The result is an intellectually rigorous, practically informed contribution to the debate about the state of debate, a book that sounds the alarm, identifies some of the threats to democracy, the free forming of public opinion, and to social cohesion, and makes concrete suggestions that might help us to finally improve the way we argue with each other.

»Finally, someone explains to us how to put up with each other.« Yasmine M’Barek

»Fabulously enlightening! For the way into a new culture of debate, please follow this book!« Wolfram Eilenberger

»A beautiful 75th birthday present for the Federal Republic of Germany.« Micky Beisenherz

»›Normal‹ is no longer a stable category. This makes more pressing the question around which this book revolves so brilliantly: Who do we want to be? Both in the fututre and, more importantly, in the meantime as well.« Maja Göpel

»The modern democratic state can no longer rely on the form of disagreement and conflict that facilitated its discursive complexity. Reuschenbach and Frenzel interrogate this loss, and look at how we overcome it.« Armin Nassehi