Deliberative Polling - An Alternative to Town Hall Meetings

This past Sunday's NY Times features an Op Ed titled, "Town Halls by Invitation," from James Fishkin, Director of the Center for Deliberative Democracy at Stanford University. He bemoans the recent 'town hall meetings' over health care reform legislation, and their carnage for those of us seeking full engagement in participatory democracy. His proposal for deliberative polling represents an intriguing alternative for us to consider. The Stanford Center has been involved in a wide range of deliberative polling experiments over the years, with excellent results. Citizens participate in a much more informed, less polarized manner, and politicians get engaged input from a more representative sample of constituents.

In our recent Learning Community meeting, we wondered whether citizens might be engaged in the participatory process other than as crisis response; this approach may offer an important pathway towards such engagement.

-Harry