Seceding Deliberation. Antivax Propaganda in Democratic Theory

This paper focuses on opposition to vaccines during the Covid-19 pandemic to investigate democratic deliberation, comprehend the nature of disagreement in society, and conceptualize its possible evolution. The dynamics of antivax propaganda are read as a radical form of disagreement with the biomedical establishment and citizens supporting vaccines. Nonetheless, antivax propaganda is not only an expression of polarized and partisan disagreement. More properly, the antivax approach to deliberation recalls conceptual categories typical of secessions. In particular, the paper tries to show how antivax propaganda can jeopardize the democratic process by leading people to withdraw from deliberative democratic space.