To date the most courageous attempt to translate the normative theory of deliberative democracy into institutional-political reality has been by John S. Dryzek in his book Discursive Democracy: Politics, Policy and Political Science. Dryzek defines a “discursive design” as “a social institution around which the expectations of a number of actors converge. It therefore has a place in their conscious awareness as a site for recurrent communicative interaction among them. Individuals should participate as citizens, not as representatives of the state or any other corporate and hierarchical body. No concerned individuals should be excluded.... The focus of deliberations should include, but not be limited to, the individual or collective needs and interests of the individuals involved.... Within discursive design, there should be no hierarchy of formal rules, though debate may be governed by informal canons of discourse. A decision rule of consensus should obtain. Finally, all the features I have enumerated should be redeemable within the discursive design itself. Participants should be free to reflectively and discursively override any or all of them”