Deliberation

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"Public deliberation is simply people coming together to talk about a community, national, or international problem that is important to them. Participants deliberate with one another—eye-to-eye, face-to-face, exploring options, weighing others’ views, considering the costs and consequences of public policy decisions.

Citizens have a responsibility to make choices about how to solve problems because government alone cannot solve them all. Citizens’ views often differ from officeholders’ views. Deliberation may reveal new possibilities for action that neither citizens nor officeholders saw before.

Forums enrich participants’ thinking on public issues. The process helps people—who use choice work in their discovery—to see issues from different points of view. At their best, forum help participants move toward shared, stable, well-informed public judgments, based on what is valuable to them about important issues. Through deliberation, participants move from making individual choices to making choices as a public."

The Logic of Deliberative Democracy

1. For "politics" to work as it should -- to have the qualities we want it to have -- citizens have to be ACTORS. The political system won't change by itself. People have to claim their responsibilities and act on those responsibilities, both by setting directions for government and by joining together in public action.

2. People can't act together, either to set directions or to join together as citizens, without making choices, or decisions, which are always difficult because choices about what kind of community or country we want to have force us to deal with the pulls and tugs of all that is deeply valuable to us.

3. This "choice work" requires a DELIBERATIVE DIALOGUE. Deliberation is that particular form of reasoning and talking together in which we weigh carefully the costs and consequences of our options for action -- as well as the vies of others. Forums have to be deliberative if they are to lead to sound decisions.

4. Deliberation changes first opinions into more shared and reflective PUBLIC JUDGMENT about how we should act. Deliberative forums create public knowledge (new information about the public) and a PUBLIC VOICE.

5. The information or public voice that comes from a forum about how citizens see issues and what they are or aren't willing to do to address them is essential information for  officeholders. When governments act in accordance with public judgment, they acquire public legitimacy.

6. Deliberation also helps people find connections among varied purposes and a shared sense of direction. though not complete agreement or consensus, this COMMON GROUND FOR ACTION  that  deliberative forums create is the basis for public action, which is a rich array of citizen-to-citizen actions, that are mutually reinforcing or COMPLEMENTARY because they serve compatible purposes. Public action makes governmental action effective.

In sum:

Democratic politics requires public action. Public action requires public choice. Choice requires public deliberation over what is truly valuable. Deliberation produces public judgment which gives shared purpose and direction to public action, making it complementary as well as to government action, making it legitimate.

NATIONAL ISSUES FORUM INSTITUTE
JULY 1995

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