Stanford’s Jim Fishkin - the creator of the Deliberative Poll - has recently completed a public engagement process in Michigan. The effort - “Hard Times, Hard Choices” - brought together a representative random sample of Michiganders to discuss and weigh policy solutions to the state’s obvious fiscal crisis.
Sponsored by the Kellogg Foundation, Fishkin’s Deliberative Poll is an enagement process where a representative sample of citizens participate in a 1-3 “seminar” during which they learn policy options from a variety of perspectives, engage with peers in small groups discussions and complete surveys - with both quantitative and qualitative questions - at the end of the project.