Deliberative Democracy

1
Deliberative Democracy Citizen Engagement
Carolyn Lukensmeyer President Founder
AmericaSpeaks
2

• AmericaSpeaks mission is to reinvigorate
  American democracy by engaging citizens in
  the public decision-making that
  most impacts their lives

3
Citizen Engagement in USA

• Self-governance is a founding principle of our
  country
• Gap exists between our aspirational democracy
  our actual democracy
• Since 1989, an explosion of democratic movements
  around the world
• This work is well funded by governments in many
  other countries yet, not in USA
• Today, USA is a world leader in fields
  experimentation innovation

4
Non-Profits Key Role in Citizen
Engagement

• Connecting citizens with services each other -
  Advancing the Common Good
• Encouraging individuals to make a difference in
  their communities
• United Way has a leadership role in revitalizing
  citizen engagement
• Goal to build local infrastructure that enables
  communities to operate this way

5
9 Principles of AmericaSpeaks Work
6
1. Committed Leadership
7
9 Principles of AmericaSpeaks Work

• Committed Leadership
• Robust Project Design

8
3. Scale
9
4. Demographically Diverse Participants
10
9 Principles of AmericaSpeaks Work

• Committed Leadership
• Robust Project Design
• Scale
• Demographically Diverse Participants
• Informed Participation

11
6. Facilitated Dialogue Deliberation
12
7. Shared Priorities
13
9 Principles of AmericaSpeaks Work

• Committed Leadership
• Robust Project Design
• Scale
• Demographically Diverse Participants
• Informed Participation
• Facilitated Dialogue Deliberation
• Shared Priorities
• Link To Action
• Sustaining Citizen Participation

14
Dialogue and Deliberation Streams of Practice
Developed by
National Coalition for Dialogue
Deliberation
15
(No Transcript)
16
(No Transcript)
17
(No Transcript)
18
(No Transcript)
19
(No Transcript)
20
Dialogue and Deliberation Processes

• 21st Century Town Meeting
• Appreciative Inquiry
• Bohmian Dialogue
• Charrettes
• Citizen Choicework
• Citizens Jury
• Consensus Conference
• Conversation Café
• Compassionate Listening
• Deliberative Polling
• Future Search
• Intergroup Dialogue

• National Issues Forums
• Open Space Technology
• Public Conversations Project Dialogue
• Socrates Café
• Study Circles
• Sustained Dialogue
• Victim Offender Mediation
• Web Labs Small Group Dialogue
• Wisdom Circle
• Wisdom Council
• World Café
• and more!

21
Eighteen-Month Public Engagement on Regional
Economic Development in Northeast Ohio
22
New Scale of Participation

• A region revitalizing their economy through
  citizen engagement
• Coalition of 80 Foundations
• Engaged 20,000 people
• 16-county region
• Educated hundreds of thousands
• Multiple models of public engagement

23
Integration of Models
24
Integration of Models
25
Integration of Models
26
Integration of Models
27
Educated Engaged Hundreds of Thousands about
Northeast Ohios Regional Economy

• Over 18 months, Voices Choices
• Engaged 21,000 Northeast Ohioans
• Distributed 53,000 discussion guides and reports
• Received 70,000 visits and 1 million hits on its
  website
• Sent 100,000 email messages to its network of
  citizens and leaders
• Logged 450 stories in newspapers and on
  television
• Total exposure of more than 39 million media
  viewings

28
Implementing Voices Choices

• Advance Northeast Ohio is implementing the
  regions economic action plan
• based on the priorities set by the public during
  Voices Choices
• Mayor of Cleveland adopted regionalism as one of
  most prominent agenda items
• Collaboration across traditional geopolitical
  boundaries
• regions mayors are tax revenue sharing
• chamber of commerce heads are launching the
  regions very first marketing campaign
• New regional public infrastructure

29
Lessons Learned

• Changing mindset requires long-term commitment
• Reach citizens where they are churches,
  business, schools, TV, etc. to increase
  participation and exposure
• Offer variety in engagement opportunities to
  attract diverse participants (length, activity,
  location)
• Partnerships are critical for success including
  decision makers
• Provide citizens with safe leadership
  opportunities
• Plan from the start for sustained engagement

30
Guides to Engagement

• Taking Democracy to Scale Large Scale
  Interventions for Citizens. For this and other
  publications, see www.americaspeaks.org/resources/
  publications
• Seven Ways to Get Involved
  www.americaspeaks.org/getinvolved
• Deliberative Democracy Consortium
  www.deliberative-democracy.net/resources
• Ten Public Involvement Hot Spots.
  from the Collaborative Governance Initiative
• Success Factors for Public Engagement.Planning
  public engagement that works well for all
  concerned
• Matrix of Online Methods to Support Consultation
  Deliberation. Approaches to online public
  engagement, as prepared by AmericaSpeaks

31
Thank You!
www.americaspeaks.org