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Deliberative Democracy eBulletin v.6 no.9 November 26, 2007
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Thanks as always to everyone who contributed to November's eBulletin. Please email future items to editor@deliberative-democracy.net. Help us expand our reach and the visibility of public deliberation throughout the world by encouraging your colleagues and friends to subscribe: http://www.deliberative-democracy.net/ebulletin/
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lars hasselblad torres
editor, ddc ebulletin
*** FROM THE BLOG ***
http://www.deliberative-democracy.net/blog
1 | Four Years of DDC Research and Practice
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Matt Leighninger writes about a draft discussion report, "Where is Democracy Headed? Four years of DDC research and practice" which is now available on the DDC wiki. In the report, Peter Levine and Lars Hasselblad Torres have described the findings, publications, and other products of the 2003 and 2005 Researcher and Practitioner meetings, and incorporated those ideas in an insightful essay on the future of deliberative democracy. They make twelve key observations on the state of the field and suggest seven critical steps for moving forward.
To read the draft and provide feedback visit: http://wiki.deliberative-democracy.net/index.php/Summary_Report
2 | Democracy As A Campaign Issue?
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Joe Goldman muses about a recent announcement by Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama: "He wants Cabinet officials, government executives and rule-making agencies to hold meetings open to the public and transmitted with a live feed -- Obama wants the public to be able to comment on the White House Web site for five days before legislation is signed."
More at: http://www.deliberative-democracy.net/blog/?p=248
3 | The DDC Needs Your Stories
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Matt Leighninger writes, "...John Gastil makes an eloquent plea that we help public officials and other leaders decide 'what works best for what purpose, under what circumstances' when it comes to deliberation and democratic governance.... I think achieving the kind of 'deliberative consensus' that John points us toward can be difficult when we're just comparing models and techniques in the abstract.
Read more: http://www.deliberative-democracy.net/blog/?p=244
*** From the Journal of Public Deliberation ***
http://www.auburn.edu/academic/liberal_arts/poli_sci/journal_public_deliberation/
4 | Saskatchewan PM Promises Citizens Assembly in 2008
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Jim Snider writes that, "Premier Lorne Calvert announced today that within six months of his re-election in November of 2007, he would convene a Citizen's Assembly to make recommendations on improving the functioning of democratic institutions in Saskatchewan." According to Pemier Calvert, "Democracy is much too important to be left solely to politicians. When significant change to our democracy is being proposed, it is absolutely vital that that process be led by the citizens, and not the politicians, of Saskatchewan."
Read more at: http://tinyurl.com/225l8v
5 | John Edwards' 'One Democracy' Initiative Calls for Citizen Congresses
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A few weeks ago, the JPD reports, Senator and presidential candidate John Edwards called for the creation of "Citizen Congresses" that would regularly convene 1,000,000 Americans in national deliberations on critical policy issues. These congresses are part of his One Democracy Initiative http://www.johnedwards.com/issues/govt-reform. According to Edwards, he believes that elections every two or four years are not enough of a connection between most Americans and their government in Washington, D.C. This is particularly unnecessary what with the growth of communications technology in recent times. Thus, in Edwards' view: "most voters are no closer to Washington policymakers than they were hundreds of years ago."
Read more: http://tinyurl.com/24otmk
*** OTHER NEWS ***
6 | Citizen Deliberation Effective for Addressing Complex Public Funding Issues
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[From CPRN] The National Charrette Institute has developed the first model Request for Proposals (RFP), a general guide for the procurement of services relating to a community planning project that includes a NCI charrette. The NCI charrette is an accelerated, collaborative planning process. Lacking a charrette specification, sponsoring agencies have been left to simply call for a charrette and hope for the best. Such a lack of specificity in the RFP typically results in a confusing set of proposals representing a wide range of processes. This makes it very difficult to judge the proposals and often leads to a less than satisfactory public involvement process.
View the report here: http://www.cprn.org/doc.cfm?doc=1797&l=en
7 | Award for Citizen Participation Serve As An Effective Public Affairs Tool
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A jury consisting of top-level communication experts representing the German PR association, DPRG named, on 14 September 2007, the "European Citizens' Consultations" led by the Belgian King Baudouin Foundation as winner in the category, "Lobbying and Public Affairs." The award was handed over to Hans-Peter Meister and Felix Oldenburg of the coordinating partner IFOK. This is the first time the prestigious award was given to a political dialogue project. The European Citizens' Consultations prove a successful example of how dialogue and participatory processes can be implemented in a way that suits the current political context and enables citizens' involvement across the boundaries of language, culture and geography. Congratulations to Hans-Peter and Felix!
More information on the European Citizens' Consultations: www.european-citizens-consultations.eu
More information on the DPRG: www.dprg.de
8 | Owensboro-Daviess County Kentuckians
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About 650 residents of Owensboro-Daviess County, KY participated on November 11 in their largest-ever public meeting. The forum, named "We The People," brought citizens together to discuss their region's education, environment, health care, economic development and local government. The goal of the event was to identify the community's priorities and help formulate a plan to achieve them. The forum was design and facilitated by AmericaSpeaks, using their 21st Century Town Meeting methodology.
Visit the 'We the People' at: http://www.wethepeopletownmeeting.org/
9 | Deliberative Democracy "Help Line" Launched in Beta
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The Deliberative Democracy Consortium has been working on the development of a web application that can help decision-makers figure out what kind of public engagement and deliberative process and strategy is right for them. "The Democracy Helpline" provides users with a customized report of helpful resources based on responses to a simple questionnaire, as well as a searchable database of books, articles and other resources. According to the site, "When you want to help communities communicate and operate more effectively, the Helpline can provide resources. You can use the system when you are just beginning to think about a participatory process, when you are deciding what to do next -- or when you have completed a process and wonder how to do it differently next time!"
Visit the Helpline at: http://helpline.deliberative-democracy.net/
10 | [Study] Dissonant Discourse Turning Off College Students to Formal Politics
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[From CIRCLE] A recent study by the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning (CIRLCE) bolsters arguments that conflict turns citizens off of politics - a claim asserted in such important studies as "Stealth Democracy." According to CIRCLE's findings in their report "Millennials Talk Politics: A Study of College Student Civic Engagement," college students in the United States are hungry for political conversation that is authentic, involves diverse views and is free of manipulation and "spin." Today's students -- part of the Millennial Generation born between 1985 and 2004 -- feel responsible to become civically involved and are more engaged in their communities. They recognize the importance of being educated and involved citizens, the report says, but discard much of the information available to them because of its polarizing and partisan nature. They are turned off by intensely combative political debate.
Access the full report at: http://www.civicyouth.org/?page_id=250
11 | [Training] NCI Charrettes and the Model RFP Template
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What is a NCI charrette and how can it be used to support healthy community transformation? What are the key strategies to conducting a successful charrette? How can a planning agency write a RFP that specifies a NCI charrette? How can you increase the possibilities of getting qualified responses to your charrette RFP?
In this Expert Chat, KnowledgePlex teams up with the National Charrette Institute to discuss these questions. Their panel of experts will present an overview of NCI Dynamic Planning, an accelerated, collaborative planning process centered around a multiple-day charrette. The newly released NCI model Request for Proposals (RFP) template for specifying charrettes will also be presented. The purpose of the RFP template is to provide language to encourage consistency of resulting proposals, ease the rating and comparison of proposals, and assist in the successful implementation of a superior community development process and product.
The model RFP template is available free for download at www.charretteinstitute.org. Participate in the online chat at: http://www.knowledgeplex.org/xchat.html
12 | [Report] Transforming Education and Public Life in Bridgeport
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[From Public Agenda] "Transforming Public Life: A Decade of Citizen Engagement in Bridgeport," by Will Friedman, Alison Kadlec and Lara Birnback, is a new case study that outlines how public engagement has become an integral part of the city of Bridgeport, Connecticut's civic life. It shows how citizen engagement has extended beyond education, the issue around which it began, to other areas and has had an important impact on how decisions are generally made. According to the study, public problems are often viewed as the responsibility of experts. But in Bridgeport, citizens are increasingly viewed as important partners in problem solving.
"Transforming Public Life" illustrates how public engagement in education was launched through a series of Public Agenda Community Conversations, conducted in cooperation with the Bridgeport Public Education Fund, the Institute for Educational Leadership, the Connecticut-based William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund and the Connecticut League of Women Voters.
Learn more and download the report at: http://www.publicagenda.org/pubengage/pe_cape.cfm
13 | [Resource] EPA's Public Involvement Newsletter - Fall 2007 Edition Out
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The US Environmental Protection Agency's Public Involvement team has released the latest edition of their quarterly newsletter, "Network News." Network News is an electronic newsletter for public involvement and collaborative problem solving practitioners. The purpose is to assist EPA's staff and any other interested individuals to improve the quality and consistency of involvement/collaboration processes and activities. This month's 'Network News' includes articles on: "The Benefits of Collaborative Supplemental Environmental Projects," "Putting the Public Back in Public Health Work," and "Americans' Knowledge of Nanotechnology."
To access the newsletter visit: http://www.epa.gov/publicinvolvement/Featurearticles.html
14 | [Report] Framing-to-Persuade vs. Framing-for-Deliberation
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Public Agenda's Center for Advances in Public Engagement has released an interesting report on "framing" in democratic politics. "Reframing Framing," authored by Center director Will Friedman, argues that, "The current infatuation with framing is concerned virtually exclusively with the power politics of parties and interest groups, and the winning or losing of their respective battles." Instead, the report asks, "What if we asked instead about the relationship of framing to fostering citizenship and enabling democratic deliberation and dialogue? What if we were to reframe framing to focus less on how it can help one side or another win the political game and more on what it means, and can mean, for strengthening the democratic process?" In the report, Dr. Friedman delineates "Framing-to-Persuade vs. Framing-for-Deliberation" and tackles honest vs. dishonest framing.
Read the full report here: http://www.publicagenda.org/pubengage/pdfs/reframing_framing.pdf
15 | Regis University Offers Students Participatory Learning Through Its Democracy Lab
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Strong democracy requires strong citizens. Regis University's Institute on the Common Good presents Democracy Lab, an exciting resource for promoting civic engagement, developing student civic leadership and transforming campus climate. As an introductory course on dialogue and deliberation integrated into the analysis of a current issue, Democracy Lab addresses the widely recognized inadequacies of formal schooling to develop strong citizens at both the high school and college level. The Democracy Lab website encourages students to move from dialogue to inquiry to action and enables educators to track student participation and link online and classroom learning. The Democracy Lab can be easily integrated into existing courses.
For more information visit: http://www.teachingdemocracy.org
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