Deliberative Polling
Topic:
Deliberative Polling® employs social science to determine what people
would think about an issue if they became more engaged and informed. A
random, representative sample is first polled on some specific public
interest topic. After this baseline poll, members of the sample are
invited to gather at a single place for one or more days in order to
discuss the issue. Carefully balanced briefing materials developed by an
all-partisan advisory group are sent to the participants and are also
made publicly available. The participants engage in dialogue with
competing experts and decision makers based on questions they develop in
small group discussions with trained moderators. After the
deliberations, the sample of citizens is again asked the original
questions. The resulting changes in opinion represent the conclusions
the public would reach if people had an opportunity to truly deliberate
about an issue, engage with alternative points of view, and become more
informed. For more information about Deliberative Polls®, please visit
the Center for Deliberative Democracy.
Goals:
The first goal of this initiative is for AASCU institutions to test
Deliberative Polling strategies on campus to engage students, faculty,
staff, and/or members of the broader community in discussions of public
issues. The second goal of the initiative is to develop strategies and
practices built from Deliberative Polling that can be used to educate
undergraduates about issues, and to develop citizenship skills of
engagement that can used when students graduate and become members of
communities.
Achievements:
In 2008 and 2009, selected AASCU institutions hosted Deliberative
Polls® on their campuses. In 2010, the third Deliberative Polling
Institute will be held at the ADP National Meeting. This institute will
feature two models of Deliberative Polls®. The first model will maintain
the integrity of the social science behind conducting a statistically
significant Deliberative Poll®. The second model will be a hybrid of the
tools implemented in a Deliberative Poll® (such as discussion group
facilitators, issue-based dialogue, and panels of leading experts) but
will not adhere to the strict and oftentimes costly social science
requirements of having a representative sample.
Map of Deliberative Polling Participants
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List of Participants