Last week I attended an insightful lecture by James Fishkin, hosted by Stanford’s Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS). Fishkin is best known for pioneering the promising concept of Deliberative Polling®—”a practice of public consultation that employs random samples of the citizenry to explore how opinions would change if they were more informed”. Some of its primary ideas are summarized below. Click on this link for more info and examples of the kind of shifts in opinion, sometimes dramatic, that occur when citizens take the time to become more informed. Imagine the benefits of this practice if it found favor as a means of incorporating the voice of the people in public decisionmaking (more reading and an excellent audio interview with Fishkin).

The Problem
Citizens are often uninformed about key public issues. Conventional polls represent the public’s surface impressions of sound bites and headlines. The public, subject to what social scientists have called “rational ignorance,” has little reason to confront trade-offs or invest time and effort in acquiring information or coming to a considered judgment.

The Process
Deliberative Polling® is an attempt to use television and public opinion research in a new and constructive way. A random, representative sample is first polled on the targeted issues. After this baseline poll, members of the sample are invited to gather at a single place for a weekend in order to discuss the issues. Carefully balanced briefing materials are sent to the participants and are also made publicly available. The participants engage in dialogue with competing experts and political leaders based on questions they develop in small group discussions with trained moderators. Parts of the weekend events are broadcast on television, either live or in taped and edited form. After the deliberations, the sample is again asked the original questions. The resulting changes in opinion represent the conclusions the public would reach, if people had opportunity to become more informed and more engaged by the issues.