Deliberative stress in linguistically divided Belgium

Even though a diversity of perspectives and opinions is the driving force of any democracy, there is a point beyond which the diversity might become too great to allow for any meaningful public debate. This is often the case in deeply divided society, where deliberation within the political system is reduced to a game of discursive hand wrestling. Based on an analysis of linguistically divided Belgium, we make an attempt to determine what factors cause political systems to experience deliberative stress, and what levers exist for enabling these systems to realize their deliberative potential.