Friday, September 10, 2010
Deliberative democracy-a plausible alternative to direct democracy?
On the heels of our discussion regarding direct democracy, I found this article very interesting. (How Can a Democracy Solve Tough Problems) This article discusses a method of decision making based on a procedure used by the ancient Greeks. It is currently being used by a district in China. A certain amount of citizens are chosen using scientific method to obtain a suitable sample of the population. That group then meets for several days and is educated by experts on opposite sides of an issue. They are then allowed to ask questions of those experts. Afterward, they discuss with each other and make an informed decision that is then presented to the local government. James Fishkin, a Stanford professor, has been conducting experiments in this process for 20 years. He states that, "If people think their voice actually matters, they'll do the hard work, really study their briefing books, ask the experts smart questions and then make tough decisions. When they hear the experts disagreeing, they're forced to think for themselves. About 70% change their minds in the process." I found this article very interesting. Read it for yourself and see if you believe this might be an alternative to direct democracy that could give the common man a bigger voice.
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Nice article, Christy! As I was reading your description of it, I was struck by the thought that it sounds a lot like various deliberating groups that do happen in the United States already, primary among them being the Grand Jury.
ReplyDeleteA Grand Jury is, after all, selected at random from the populace, goes through training on what their duty is going to be, seeks expert opinions and deliberates on the evidence presented by the Prosecutor, and ultimately delivers a legally binding decision.
What do you think, is this a pretty good parallel? Could we perhaps learn from this process and apply a similar matter to, at the very least, municipal politics?