We're encouraging campuses to explore ways they might host or support forums that bring together individuals and organizations to discuss and develop actions plans that address a public issue.  The campuses involved in the PolicyOptions Pilot Project will be experimenting with deliberative democracy forums as one way to utilize the PolicyOptions issue briefs.

Articles

• • Working Together to Strengthen Our Nation's Democracy — Ten Recommendations:  A report from the second conference on “Strengthening Our Nation’s Democracy” August 2-4, 2009 | Washington, DC

Examples

Please include examples here of "deliberative democracy" forums your campus has either hosted or supported.

Guidebooks

• Deliberative Democracy Handbook:  The Deliberative Democracy Handbook is the first book to bring together the best practices and thinkin on deliberative citizen participation processes. Deliberative democracy is the nationwide movement to make citizen participation meaningful and effective.

• NCDD's Engagement Streams Framework: the framework helps people decide which dialogue and deliberation method(s) are most appropriate for their circumstance. The framework is a series of two charts that categorize the D&D field into four streams based on intention or purpose (Exploration, Conflict Transformation, Decision Making, and Collaborative Action), and show which of the most well-known methods have proven themselves effective in which streams. The second chart goes into more detail about 23 dialogue and deliberation methods, and includes information such as group size, meeting type and how participants are selected.
• The Agenda for Strengthening Our Nation’s Democracy was developed by a diverse group of thinkers, advocates, and academics, who came together from across the fields of electoral reform, deliberative democracy and community development. Together, we represent a vibrant emerging movement for a stronger democracy. Download the Agenda (pdf 470KB)
• Public Engagement: A Primer from Public Agenda: Creating Civic Capacity for Public Problem Solving

Organizations

The Democracy Imperative: 

TDI is a national network of multidisciplinary scholars, campus leaders, and civic leaders in the fields of democratic dialogue, public deliberation, and democracy-building. Our mission is to strengthen public life and advance deliberative democracy in and through higher education.

Deliberative Democracy Consortium: 

The mission of the Consortium is to bring together practitioners and researchers to support and foster the nascent, broad-based movement to promote and institutionalize deliberative democracy at all levels of governance in the United States and around the world.  The activities of the Consortium are coordinated by an Executive Committee, chaired by Carolyn Lukensmeyer, president of AmericaSpeaks. Matt Leighninger is the Consortium's Executive Director. Task groups (listed below) carry out strategic planning and activities related to knowledge building, democratic governance, online deliberation and linking to government.

Everyday Democracy:

To help communities develop their own ability to solve problems by exploring ways for all kinds of people to think, talk and work together to create change.  Issue resources: Racial Equity, Education, Neighborhoods, Youth Issues, Poverty, Growth and Sprawl, Diversity, Immigration, Police-Community Relations, Violence.

Demos

A multi-issue national organization, Demos combines research, policy development, and advocacy to influence public debates and catalyze change. We publish books, reports, and briefing papers that illuminate critical problems and advance innovative solutions; work at both the national and state level with advocates and policymakers to promote reforms; help to build the capacity and skills of key progressive constituencies; project our values into the media by promoting Demos Fellows and staff in print, broadcast, and Internet venues; and host public events that showcase new ideas and leading progressive voices.

AmericaSpeaks

AmericaSpeaks’ mission is to reinvigorate American Democracy by engaging citizens in the public decision-making that most impacts their lives. Since our founding in 1995 by Dr. Carolyn J. Lukensmeyer, AmericaSpeaks gives citizens an authentic voice in local, regional and national decision-making on the most challenging public issues of the day. We are a nonpartisan organization based in Washington, D.C. Our vision is that the public's business will be conducted differently - that by developing a rich national infrastructure for democratic deliberation through our projects, innovation and collaboration, we can access the collective wisdom of the American people. Through our innovative deliberative tools such as our 21^st Century Town Meeting®, more than 130,000 people across the country and around the world have had an impact on their communities. These tools give citizens an opportunity to have a strong voice in public decision-making within the increasingly short timeframes required of decision-makers. As a result, citizens can impact decisions and those in leadership positions can make more informed, lasting decisions.

National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation

An online hub for those dedicated to solving tough problems with honest talk, quality thinking and collaborative action.

Difficult Dialogues initiative

Last year, the Ford Foundation selected 27 campuses (from an applicant pool of more than 700) to receive grants of $100,000 each for projects that promote campus environments where sensitive subjects can be discussed in a spirit of open scholarly inquiry, academic freedom and with respect for different viewpoints. An additional 15 campuses received $10,000 stipends to allow them to participate in the initiative. Difficult Dialogues was created in response to reports of growing intolerance and efforts to curb academic freedom at colleges and universities. The goal is to help institutions address this challenge through academic and campus programs that enrich learning, encourage new scholarship and engage students and faculty in constructive dialogue about contentious political, religious, racial and cultural issues. It is being operated by the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression at the University of Virginia. The Difficult Dialogues web site has links to the specific campuses.  Three Bonner schools participated: Macalester College, Mars Hill College, and the University of Alaska - Anchorage.

National Issue Forums

"National Issue Forums (NIF) is a network of civic, educational, and other organizations, and individuals, whose common interest is to promote public deliberation in America. It has grown to include thousands of civic clubs, religious organizations, libraries, schools, and many other groups that meet to discuss critical public issues." Organizations, including over 30 colleges and universities, host issue framing workshops and workshops on convening and moderating an issue forum. For up-coming events, see http://nifi.org/network/index.aspx.

• Listing of other groups