In June 2004, Let's Talk America and the Democracy In America Project, two dialogue initiatives aimed at healing the left-right divide, co-hosted two dozen thought leaders from across the political spectrum at the Seasons Conference Center at the Fetzer Institute in Kalamazoo, Michigan, to explore the potential to bridge their political differences through dialogue. It worked better than anyone dared hope. Shared concerns and perspectives bubbled up in the space of dialogue that never show their faces in debates. On Sunday, June 13, 2004, after two and a half days of powerful dialogue, the group decided to sign a declaration. (continue)

What does a homelessness prevention program in Los Angeles share with a rural infant mortality program and a job training program for women in construction? This report highlights research findings from nineteen Wanted: Solutions for America sites and identifies common features of effective community-based programs. It also describes the participatory evaluation model that partnered faculty and program staff in the research process. (continue)

This guide translates complex evaluation research into actionable strategies needed to build stronger communities. What We Know Works is a primer that summarizes current research in four broad areas: healthy families and children, thriving neighborhoods, living-wage jobs, and viable economies. These are issues of paramount concern to citizens and of critical importance to the future of all communities. This resource provides a road map through the array of social service programs and a starting point to address discrete issues - from quality childcare to homelessness to downtown revitalization. (continue)

In some way or another, most public issues need all of us to help remove the supports that keep the issues propped up and causing problems. The process of framing the approaches to the issues, and then deliberating them, assures that the issues get the complex attention they need. It is a foundation for multilateral action in the necessary combinations that most issues need, if we really intend to work on them. It assures we can discover and creatively use all perspectives - including, but not only, our favorite ones. (continue)

When the Vending Machine Breaks, an article written by NCDD member Pete Peterson, has been published in Fox & Hounds Daily, a website designed to discuss and explain the confluence of politics and business in California. Pete is the Executive Director of Common Sense California, and was one of the panelists on the “conservatives panel” at NCDD Austin. The last paragraph of this highly recommended article sums it up pretty well: It’s a process I have witnessed many times: as residents learn about the difficult ... (continue)

“Where is Democracy Headed?” (2008) is a report published by the Deliberative Democracy Consortium (DDC) which summarizes more than four years of the DDC’s learnings about deliberation, decision-making, and problem-solving. The publication was drafted by Peter Levine (Tufts University) and Lars Hasselbad Torres (Global Peace Tiles Project), then revised by DDC members through a wiki. Its findings were gathered from interviews, face-to-face discussions, and the wiki. The report was published with the support of the Kettering Foundation and has two major sections. The first part ... (continue)

Who Wants to Deliberate – and Why? is an article published as part of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Faculty Research Working Paper Series, co-authored by Michael Neblo, Kevin Esterling, Ryan Kennedy, David Lazer, and Anand Sokhey. Abstract: Interest in deliberative theories of democracy has grown tremendously among political theorists over the last twenty years. Many scholars in political behavior, however, are skeptical that it is a practically viable theory, even on its own terms. They argue (inter alia) that most people dislike politics, and that ... (continue)

Ron Thomas developed this matrix with his class on participatory planning to attempt to help clarify who's doing what AND why some effective participation methods and practitioners have not been more widely embraced by the U.S. (urban, regional, land use, transportation) planning profession. He found that there are very few truly participatory planning models, methods or practitioners, which is perpetuated by the general lack of their inclusion in the core planning curricula nationwide. (continue)

Dave Davenport, research fellow at the Hoover Institute and professor of public policy at Pepperdine University, wrote a great article for the Hoover Digest titled Why Conservatives should Embrace Deliberative Democracy. The article refers to some deliberative efforts – CaliforniaSpeaks, a European deliberative poll, the Canadian citizens assemblies for electoral reform, etc. – and talks about how, when he describes these experiments to his political and policy friends, he gets more enthusiastic reactions from people on the Left than those on the Right. “Perhaps,” Davenport ... (continue)

A number of organizations in Britain's National Health Service (NHS) have been experimenting with deliberative techniques of citizen involvement, techniques that were designed with democratic imperatives in mind. However, political practices are moulded by their institutional settings and the goals of their proponents, so it is unlikely that they have been left 'pure' following their encounter with public management imperatives. (continue)