Notes
From DDCwiki
Where is Democracy Headed? Developing a research agenda that charts the changes and supports the innovators
4H Conference Center Chevy Chase, MD, November 30th, 2007
Meeting notes
Notes compiled by Martin Carcasson, Lisa Bingham, Mary Pat MacKinnon, Tina Nabatchi, Peter Muhlberger, and Matt Leighninger.
[Text in brackets: Matt’s attempts to provide context or clarify points that may not be easily decipherable from the flipchart shorthand. “DD” refers to deliberative democracy.]
What are the challenges and opportunities do we face in this field?
1. Civic learning in schools and in higher ed
2. Media
3. How to plan projects collaboratively? Matching processes to situations
4. Evaluating and measurement
5. How to use video and online tools (are there good ones?)
6. What institutional/legal/structural changes support this work?
7. What are the ethics (i.e. quality) of deliberation/democracy work?
8. Inclusiveness
9. Balance between education and engagement [how much information do people need to make good decisions?]
10. Connecting the “mini-publics” [within DD efforts] with the larger public
11. Articulating values of the work
12. Addressing polarization (how does this work affect it? How do cultural conditions affect/are affected by it?)
13. Cost/benefit analysis
14. Getting to scale
15. The “dark side” of DD
We then split into small groups to talk more in-depth about these topics. Not all of the topics attracted enough people for a group; the final eight were:
1. Civic learning in schools and universities – Hawley, Levine, Thomas, Reyes, Schmidt, Giess, Snider
2. Evaluation and measurement – Scully, Ravazzi, Leftwich Kitch, Bonner, Ohlin, Nabatchi
3. New online and video tools – Heierbacher, Erickson, Smith, DiMascio, Weiksner, Chasin
4. Institutional/legal/structural challenges and ‘getting to scale’ [this combined two topics from above] – Barnes, Richardson, Peters, MacKinnon, Segal Walters, Amsler, Schechter, Bingham, Carlitz
5. Ethics and quality control – Briand, Stephens, Gunn
6. Mini-publics and larger publics – White, Topper, Becker, Landesman, Tate, Rubio-Cortes, Crosby
7. Polarization and cultural conditions – Wyman, Alicias, Shute, Carcasson, Mallory, Raes, Gastil, Hartz-Karp, Graeve, Jacksteit, Muhlberger, Bryson, Schattan, Nierras
8. The “dark side” of DD – Kelleher, Nurse, McCoy, Carson, Kahane, Hoene, Friedman, Kadlec, Goldman, Dedrick, Wagner, Fung
Notes from reportbacks:
Civic learning in schools and universities
Research questions [that the group came up with]:
- Does DD prepare students for the workplace?
- What do teachers say they need? [in order to teach DD more effectively]
- Do nontraditional schools do a better job with DD?
- Is politics a four-letter word in our schools?
- Does school size correlate with effectiveness in teaching/using DD?
- To what extent is the non-college population exposed to DD?
Evaluation and measurement
Full discussion notes compiled by Tina Nabatchi
- What are the rationales behind DD?
- Driven by both instrumental values and intrinsic ones
- Need better research designs
New online and video tools
- Sharing different technologies
- ‘Cool stuff’ being funded by Case
Institutional/legal/structural challenges and ‘getting to scale’
Full discussion notes compiled by Lisa Bingham and Mary Pat MacKinnon
- Be clear that structural and nonstructural changes must go hand in hand
- Need to make DD part of the institutional culture
- Where are we on the timeline?
- Democratic reform of parliaments
- Need to consider enterprise architecture
- Political parties are part of the equation
- Need to consider incentives, demand, and capacity
- Governance change, not just government change
Ethics and quality control
- Need guidelines and questions that “buyers” of DD can use or ask of “providers” (and vice versa)
- Look at related codes in other fields
- Separate ethics from certification
Mini-publics and larger publics
- Struggle to engage
- Different requirements for different situations
- Televotes, BC Citizens’ Assembly
- Role of media is critical (both mainstream and alternative)
- Power of processes
- Coordinating efforts between different deliberative efforts
Polarization and cultural conditions
Full discussion notes compiled by Peter Muhlberger
- Different definitions of polarization (ideological; between other kinds of groups)
- Divide between researchers and practitioners on this question
- Random sampling
- How to address zero-sum conditions to create positive-sum gain
The “dark side” of DD
- The “vending orientation” of DD providers who need to “drum up business” is a continuing challenge
- We aren’t being clear about our theories of change
- Should do anonymous interviews of practitioners to get at some of these issues
- We tend to look at successes more than failures
- Is deliberation bad for marginalized groups in certain situations?
