About Deliberation

We can't begin to act together, either to set directions or build relationships to work together as citizens, without making choices or decisions. This is always difficult because choices about what kind of community or country we want to have force us to deal with the pulls and pushes of all the different priorities that are differently (but deeply) valuable to us.

Bringing together different concerns, can really only be handled effectively in a deliberative dialogue. What is deliberation? Deliberation is a particular form of reasoning and talking together in which we weigh carefully the costs and consequences of our various options for action, in the context of the views of others. Forums (gatherings of citizens) have to be deliberative if they are to lead to sound decisions.

Deliberation tends to change first opinions into more shared and reflective public judgment about how we should act. We discover what we share, despite what we don't agree about. Deliberative forums create a deeper understanding of what people feel they need and why, and a shared sense of concern.

The public knowledge or public voice that comes from a forum - about how citizens think and talk about an issue and what they are or are not willing to do to address it - is essential information for officeholders.

Deliberation helps people find connections among their varied purposes and a shared sense of direction. Though not complete agreement or consensus, this provides common ground for action. Thus, deliberative forums create a basis for public for public action, which is often a rich array of citizen-to-citizen actions that are complementary, because they serve compatible purposes. Public action can often make governmental action more effective.

Sometimes citizen action is in itself more effective than government action!