Resources for Elected Officials

Principles of Regional Stewardship
A framework that brings together conversations about livable communities, collaborative governance, social inclusion and innovative economies (January, 2005)

Public Works
Program overview for the Demos Center for the Public Sector: strategies to change perceptions of government and build support for its essential tasks, engaging national and state leaders and beginning a new public conversation (December 5, 2005)

The Rise of Democratic Governance
This publication from the National League of Cities describes the changing conditions facing local officials, and how they are pioneering new deliberative strategies.

Success Factors for Public Engagement
Planning public engagement that works well for all concerned (February 3, 2005)

Ten Public Involvement "Hot Spots"
From the Collaborative Governance Initiative: In designing public involvement, extra attention to these ten points can help assure an effective and successful process (November 17, 2005)

Using the Power to Convene
A "how to" for legislative leaders

DDC Materials

Building a Deliberation Measurement Toolbox
Report to the Deliberative Democracy Consortium by Peter Muhlberger.

The Deliberative Agency (PDF)
Discussion paper prepared by the Link to Government Work Group

Matrix of face-to-face methods for deliberation (PDF)
Prepared by the staff of AmericaSpeaks

Matrix of online methods to support consultation and deliberation (PDF)
Prepared by the staff of AmericaSpeaks

Webliography (Excel XLS)
An inventory of materials published on the web. Includes academic articles, "grey literature," and practical guides on a range of topics – deliberation to social capital. Includes article abstracts. Find articles using Google search by author and title.

If you have resources that would be valued by the field, and are willing to share them, please let us know!

Contributed

Deliberative Approaches to Governance in Latin America
by Andrew Selee, Woodrow Wilson Center (August, 2003)
Throughout Latin America, municipal governments have been experimenting with participatory approaches to democratic governance that have significant deliberative components. Once thought of as an exercise reserved for small groups with shared interests or small towns with a degree of social cohesion, deliberative democracy is being applied albeit unevenly to formal government structures in towns and cities of different sizes throughout the region in new and innovative ways.

Deliberative Citizens' Forums and Interest Groups: Roles, Tensions and Incentives
by Carolyn Hendriks, Social and Political Theory Program Research School of Social Sciences, The Australian National University (December, 2002)
Citizens are being called to play a greater role in policy making and tensions are arising between pluralist and deliberative democratic models of public participation. On the one hand, pluralists and neo-corporatists maintain that interest groups provide a focal point for defining public interest and that the role of the state is to co-ordinate between competing groups. On the other hand, those advocating for innovative deliberative democratic processes such as citizens juries and consensus conferences seek to include a broad cross section of lay citizens.

Issue Framing: Issue Books and Implications for Community Action
by Chris Kelley, the Kettering Foundation (September, 2002)
The Kettering Foundation long ago identified a disconnect between the public and politics. People in communities all over the country felt estranged from their elected representatives, from their public institutions, and most importantly, from each other. A significant portion of this disconnect focused on how issues in communities got named and framed. Kettering surmised, correctly, that if a public issue was named in such a way that the public could not identify with it, then the public would have a difficult time supporting it.

Thrilling Show of People Power
by Pete Hamill, New York Daily News (July, 2002)
'We came to the vast hangar at the Javits Center expecting the worst. Put 5,000 New Yorkers in a room, charge them with planning a hunk of the New York future, and the result would be a lunatic asylum. We would erupt in waves of mega-kvetch. Shouts, curses, tantrums, hurled objects, nets hurled to make mass arrests. All laced together with self-righteous sound and obsessive fury.'

AmericaSpeaks: Taking Democracy to Scale (Trip Report)
by Chris Kelley, the Kettering Foundation (May, 2002)
On May 8-10, 2002, I attended the conference hosted by AmericaSpeaks on 'Taking Democracy to Scale.' The goal of the conference was to take deliberative dialogue, using all advanced technologies, to the national scale.