Mary F. Scudder is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Purdue University. Mary (Molly) Scudder is also an Associate of the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance at the University of Canberra, Australia. Her research focuses on democratic deliberation, difference, and exclusion, and has been published in Polity and Political Studies.

"While the idea of listening has always been on the deliberative agenda, research has failed to come up with a comprehensive concept of what listening exactly means and how we should capture it empirically. Scudder´s book finally closes this important research gap. In this must-read book, she provides us with a convincing normative conception which delimits good listening from consensus-seeking. And she develops an empirical approach which combines external and perception-based measurement strategies in a very smart way." -- André Bächtiger, University of Stuttgart

"Beyond Empathy and Inclusion makes an original and timely contribution to the literature on deliberative democracy through its careful elaboration of the vital and difficult role of listening in democratic politics. Scudder's impressive combination of normative deliberative theory, empirical political science, communication scholarship, and social psychology opens up fertile new directions for the theory and practice of democratic politics today. I hope we possess the wisdom to listen to her." -- Mark E. Button, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

"What is the point of inclusion if we are not listening to each other? Scudder offers a powerful defense of the centrality of norms of listening for any democratic society. These norms need to teach us how to acknowledge and respond to difference, not erase or bridge that difference. Beyond Empathy and Inclusion sheds important new light on the struggle to achieve equal citizenship." -- Simone Chambers, University of California, Irvine

"Beyond Empathy and Inclusion presses us to think about democratic deliberation — and democracy itself — in more capacious ways. As important as institutions, procedures, speech, and reason are to deliberative decision-making, Scudder shows that listening is 'what supplies deliberation with its democratic force.' The art of listening, especially in contexts of difference and disagreement, is an essential practice of democratic citizenship without which freedom remains elusive, not only the freedom of others but our own as well. Insightfully conceived and cogently argued, this book skillfully shows deliberative theory how to 'listen toward democracy'." -- Sharon R. Krause, Brown University