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Deliberation in Decision-Making
Across the world, governments and organizations are increasingly involving community members in shaping decisions that will affect their lives. Engaging the public in decision-making can lead to more innovative ideas, better decisions, greater public support of outcomes and stronger democracies.
While generative dialogues seek a broad range of ideas, deliberative dialogues invite a group to learn about a topic, examine options and trade-offs, identify shared values, and reach a rough agreement about preferred course of action. Deliberative dialogues can lead to highly nuanced recommendations or decisions that balance technical information with the values and lived experience of diverse people.
Explore this page to learn more about deliberation in decision-making, including case studies, research, tools and resources.
What is deliberation?
Deliberation refers to long and careful thinking or discussion to consider an issue or decision. Deliberation can be done by an individual, or by a group of people engaging in a structured dialogue process.
What is deliberative democracy?
Deliberative democracy is a political theory that emphasizes the importance of informed discussion in the decision-making processes of democratic societies. While elected officials engage in deliberation, deliberative democracy often refers specifically to forms of decision-making that involve careful deliberation among members of the public. Deliberative democracy suggests that through dialogue, participants can better understand diverse perspectives, critically evaluate arguments, and reach consensus or a reasonable compromise.
Why engage the public in deliberation?
Policy issues or decisions which are particularly divisive, contentious or controversial can be especially well-suited to public deliberation because participants are likely to hold a diversity of opinions on the topic and through the process will develop better understanding of the issue, the opinions that differ from their own, and the trade-offs and impacts of a decision. While total consensus may not emerge, the final recommendations are more likely to reflect a position that is acceptable to a greater number of people.
What are deliberative mini-publics?
Public deliberation can come in many forms, however an increasingly popular model is that of a “deliberative mini-public” which is characterized by:
- Assembling a group of participants that proportionally reflect the demographics of the larger population (creating a “mini” version of the general public)
- Offering everyone an equal chance of participating by randomly-selecting participants through a two-step “lottery” system (also known as “sortition” or a “civic lottery”)
- Providing participants with opportunities to learn about the topic through evidence-based information that reflects diverse perspectives
- Engaging participants in at least one full day of facilitated deliberation leading to the development of a rough agreement or “consensus” on a decision or set of recommendations
The OECD has mapped over 700 examples of deliberative mini-publics across the world, and grouped them into 12 standard models depending on their purpose, number of participants, and length. Common examples include Citizens’ Assemblies, Juries, Panels or Dialogues.
The Centre for Dialogue is a longstanding leader in deliberative democracy in Canada. We design and facilitate deliberative dialogues at a local, regional and national scale, and help to build knowledge and capacity for deliberative dialogue through our tools and resources and participation in international networks of deliberative practitioners.
Did you know that the Jack P. Blaney Asia-Pacific Hall in the Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue was the venue for the world’s first ever Citizens’ Assembly in 2004? The BC Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform was the catalyst for the ‘deliberative wave’ now being seen in Canada and across the world.
Learn More
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March 07, 2024
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October 30, 2020
Our Work
Resources from the Field
- Innovative Citizen Participation and New Democratic Institutions: Catching the Deliberative Wave, a comprehensive introduction to the growing practice of deliberative decision-making around the world (OECD, 2020)
- Assembling an Assembly Guide, practical guidance for the design and implementation of a Citizens’ Assembly (Democracy Next, 2023)
- Facilitating Deliberation: A Practical Guide, a dynamic guide for facilitators of deliberative processes (MosaicLab, 2022)
- Democracy R&D, a global network of organizations, practitioners and academics dedicated to deliberative democracy
- Knowledge Network on Climate Assemblies, dedicated to sharing best practices on the design and implementation of Citizens’ Assemblies on climate
Connect with the Centre
Interested in collaborating to design a deliberative process? Book a consultation with our team now.
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