The Yarra River Values Forum was convened by Institute for Sustainable Futures as part of an investigation by the Victorian Smart Water Fund. Dr. Annie Bolitho shared this case study with NCDD... (continue)

The Coast Shire Council Citizens’ Juries on Roads Management was convened by Surf Coast Shire Council, Victoria in 2007. Dr. Annie Bolitho shared this case study with NCDD... (continue)

The Loddon Riparian Frontages Citizens Panel was convened by the Victorian Department of Primary Industries and the North Central Catchment Management Authority. Dr. Annie Bolitho shared this case study with NCDD... (continue)

Building on the success of citizen juries and deliberative polling, Gastil proposes improving our current process by convening randomly selected panels of citizens to deliberate for several days on ballot measures and candidates. Voters would learn about the judgments of these citizen panels through voting guides and possibly information printed on official ballots. The result would be a more representative government and a less cynical public. (continue)

Since 1974, the Jefferson Center has conducted Citizen Juries at the local, state and national levels. In a Citizens Jury, a randomly selected, demographically representative panel of citizens, which serve as a microcosm of the public, meet to carefully examine an issue of public significance. At the end of their moderated hearings, the members present their recommendations to the public. The Citizens Jury process is a comprehensive tool that allows decision makers to hear thoughtful citizen input. Juries have addressed topics including national health care reform, budget priorities, environmental issues and local school district facility needs. (continue)

The concept of public participation is currently one of great interest to researchers and policy makers. In response to a perceived need for greater public involvement in decision making and policy formation processes on the part of both policymakers and the general public, a variety of novel mechanisms have been developed, such as the consensus conference and citizens jury, to complement traditional mechanisms, such as the public meeting. However, the relative effectiveness of the various mechanisms is unclear, as efforts at evaluation have been sparse. In this article, the authors describe an evaluation of a two-day "deliberative conference" on the topic of radiation dose assessment. (continue)

Citizen juries use a representative sample of citizens (usually selected in a random or stratified manner), who are briefed in detail on the background and current thinking relating to a particular issue, and asked to discuss possible approaches, sometimes in a televised group. (continue)

The concept "citizen reflective councils" is emerging through our deeper study of the concept Citizen Deliberative Council. In most materials at www.co-intelligence.org - and in the book The Tao of Democracy - we've used the term "Citizen Deliberative Council to embrace a set of democratic innovations that we now believe may need to be reconceptualized. (continue)

Reflection refers to thoughtfulness, concentration, meditation, contemplation - especially the calm, careful, continued consideration of something. Often it involves observing and coming to understand the functioning of one's own mind or heart (which is sometimes called self-reflexive awareness). (continue)

The Citizens Jury process is a method for gathering a microcosm of the public, having them attend five days of hearings, deliberate among themselves and then issue findings and recommendations on the issue they have discussed. No deliberative method has been more carefully designed or thoroughly tested than this method. (continue)