February Bulletin

Hello Friends and Champions of Deliberative Democracy— Happy February to you all. My favorite Valentine showed up yesterday in The New York Times, which quoted Obaid Malik as saying: “People are still going to go out and do their thing and have fun—maybe just in different ways. You can’t ban love,” after Pakistan prohibited Valentine’s Day […]

January Bulletin – Happy New Year!

Hello Friends and Fellows of Deliberative Democracy– Happy New Year! Despite a good deal of evidence to the contrary, I have high hopes for democracy in 2018. I see your posts on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram—as well as your year-end newsletters—and I feel tremendously buoyed by knowing you are all out there thinking and […]

Democracy’s Multitudes

Before the whirlwind of the holidays, my friend and democracy- hero, Peter Levine, published a blog post entitled “why the deliberative democracy framework doesn’t quite work for me.” It made me a little prickly given that I am the director of an organization with “deliberative democracy” right in the name. And yet, I understand. My […]

October Bulletin

Hello Deliberative Democracy Pals— I hope you all are enjoying the same kind of delicious fall we are here in the Pacific Northwest (except for those of you in the Southern Hemisphere. . . in your case, I hope it is an equally delicious spring). Interesting Reading Here is some more reporting on James Fishkin’s […]

Diving into Democracy’s Wreck

Wendy Willis, Executive Director, DDC Welcome to all of you. We have been talking about this for so many months. And it’s a huge pleasure to see you all here. So, on behalf of DDC, welcome! And thank you so much to Joe and Norma and everyone at UIC and Hull House for hosting us. […]

Opening Remarks, Research & Practice Meeting

By Bruce Mallory, DDC Co-Chair First and most important, I want to express my deep, deep appreciation to Wendy Willis, our superhero, super generous executive director, and CPO (chief poetry officer).  Wendy took on the role of executive director last winter and has since built on the many contributions that Matt Leighninger made prior to […]

Hello Friends of Deliberative Democracy— Holy smokes, life takes over.  But I’m glad to find you here, and happy Fall!  Here’s a good smattering of what’s going on out there in Deliberative Democracy Land: Interesting Reading The summer edition of Daedalus features thirteen essays on “The Prospects & Limits of Deliberative Democracy” (guest edited by […]

On Political Hobbyism: A Response to Eitan Hersh

by Wendy Willis Hobbies take place in the cellar and smell of airplane glue. ~John Updike Yes, it’s Saturday morning on a holiday weekend, and yes, I am supposed to have my nose to the grindstone working on manuscript revisions, and yes, I am in a beautiful cabin in the woods with my beloved and […]

On Civic Loneliness

given by Wendy Willis, Frontiers of Democracy 2017 When we imagine loneliness—or at least I when I imagine it—I think of an elderly woman, a widow, maybe, living alone in her one-bedroom apartment, nibbling on her baked potato and waiting for Sunday afternoon when her son will call. I imagine her washing her dish, reading […]