Were you aware that toddlers have cogent opinions about Habermas? Did you know that the most intractable community conflicts occur between fencers and hockey players? Did you realize that the lollipop is an invaluable tool for citizen participation? Did you know that the complex assertions and wicked problems of deliberative democracy can be explained by small children? All of these miracles, an...
In July 2009, more than 250 campus and community leaders came together at the University of New Hampshire to talk about the “deliberative democracy” field, the tide of civic change on campuses and in communities, and what those changes mean for the practice and teaching of democracy. “No Better Time: Promising Opportunities in Deliberative Democracy for Educators and Practitioners” was hos...
Democracy Helpline
The growth of democratic governance has been a grassroots phenomenon, but most of these efforts to mobilize citizens have been initiated by traditional kinds of leaders. The promise of the Democracy Helpline, a project of the Deliberative Democracy Consortium and its Partners, is to enable a broader array of people to make use of these powerful democratic strategies and principles.
The Democracy Helpline will be an unprecedented resource that people will be able to access by phone or on the Inter...
Teaching Democracy in Public Administration
Why should public administration educators be rethinking their approach to democracy? Is “collaborative governance” broadening to include (or evolving into?) “democratic governance?” How should PA schools teach democratic principles and strategies? Find out how some of your colleagues answered these questions, and add your own thoughts to the mix.
A new white paper called "Teaching Democracy in Public Administration: A roundtable discussion on trends and future published," has been produc...
Projects
Much of the work of the DDC is accomplished by four Task Groups:- Knowledge Building
- Online Deliberation
- FedNet
- Democratic Governance
The DDC is embarking on a new set of activities, each of which is aligned with one of four key priorities:
-
Helping all kinds of public leaders find the examples and resources they need to make informed decisions about how to engage citizens.
For example, we are developing the Democracy Helpline , an unprecedented international resource that will be available ...
No Taxation Without Deliberation
by John Gastil
Take note, fellow deliberationistas. The value of deliberation has become more widely apparent, finding its way into its first rallying cry. And it comes from the right, which some have wondered might be more skeptical about the deliberative democracy movement. The anti-tax protests organized for April 15 were the site of the "no taxation without deliberation" slogan, shown here on one protestor's sign .
As in this
brief letter from an Indianan
, you can see the gist of the argument.
T...
Community Engagement and Economic Growth
There is a strong connection between the way people feel about their community and the economic vitality of that city or town - this is one of the key findings of an important new study, "Soul of the Community," conducted by Gallup for the Knight Foundation. The researchers surveyed people in the 26 communities served by the Knight Foundation, which range from big cities like Detroit and Miami to smaller places such as Milledgeville, GA, and State College, PA. In almost every case, there was a s...CaliforniaSpeaks report
Three evaluations of the CaliforniaSpeaks statewide effort on health care have been combined into one report on the project's impacts and lessons learned. CaliforniaSpeaks involved over 3,500 residents in eight cities, linked by satellite, in a day-long deliberation on August 11, 2007. The research was conducted by three teams of evaluators. Archon Fung (Harvard) and Taeku Lee (Berkeley) studied the effects on participants, Harder + Company Community Research evaluated the effects on policymaker...
Online democracy between elections
An excellent new study describes the use of online tools to enable public involvement between elections. "E-Consultation: Enabling Democracy Between Elections" was written by Joe Peters and Manon Abud of Ascentum, the Ottawa-based organization that has done pioneering work to combine online and face-to-face approaches in democratic governance. The study was released by the Institute for Research on Public Policy and is available at http://www.irpp.org/choices/archive/vol15no1.pdf .
Welcome
Welcome to the Deliberative Democracy Consortium, a global network of researchers and practitioners working to advance deliberative democracy. Through information services and global collaboration the DDC champions the application of deliberative tools for citizen engagement in a range of decision-making contexts.
Tags
Created with Zaragoza Clouds
Deliberative Democracy Handbook
The Deliberative Democracy Handbook is the first book to bring together the best practices and thinkin on deliberative citizen participation processes. Deliberative democracy is the nationwide movement to make citizen participation meaningful and effective. Learn more...
Change Handbook
In a completely revised and updated second edition, lead authors Peggy Holman, Tom Devane, and Steven Cady profile sixty-one change methods--up from eighteen in the first edition. Nineteen of these methods are explored in depth, with case studies, answers to frequently asked questions, and details on the roles and responsibilities of the people involved, conditions for success, and more. Learn more...
DDC Monthly eBulletin
Visit the JPD >>
The Next Form of Democracy
Beneath the national radar, the relationship between citizens and government is undergoing a dramatic shift. The stories of civic experiments in "The Next Form of Democracy: How Expert Rule Is Giving Way to Shared Governance -- and Why Politics Will Never Be the Same" by DDC Executive Director Matt Leighninger show us the realpolitik of deliberative democracy, and illustrate how the evolution of democracy is already reshaping politics. Learn more...
Democracy Helpline
The growth of democratic governance has been a grassroots phenomenon. The promise of the Democracy Helpline, a project of the Deliberative Democracy Consortium and its Partners, is to enable a broader array of people to make use of these powerful democratic strategies and principles. Learn more...