 
Several opinion leaders around the state have come to believe that the tools of deliberative democracy may be the best hope for addressing the very serious long-term political problems facing California, especially the deep sense of alienation citizens feel toward governance in the state. The emerging field of deliberative democracy uses tools such as citizen dialogues, deliberative polling and citizen's assemblies to engage regular citizens in policy issues to break through partisan gridlock, overcome special interest domination, and rekindle a sense of civic ownership in the conduct of government. Early successes show great promise and we invited a number of civic leaders in California as well as experts nationwide, to join us in an examination of deliberative democracy and how it might be useful in improving public policy in the Golden State. On Friday morning, February 23, we heard from several experts and practitioners about deliberative democracy. These included Dr. James Fishkin, director of the Center for Deliberative Democracy at Stanford University, Dr. Carolyn Lukensmeyer, director of AmericaSpeaks in Washington, D.C., and Dr. Steven Rosell, president of Viewpoint Learning in California, all leaders in the field. We also received a report from Gordon Gibson regarding the citizen's assembly project in British Columbia. On Friday afternoon, we invited a wide range of leaders of social, cultural, business, nonprofit and political systems in the state to comment on how they believe tools of deliberative democracy might be useful in California, and what limitations or challenges they may see. On Saturday morning, we carried out a deliberative exercise that would consider several specific approaches we might take in California. We believe this conference led to wider understanding of deliberative democracy by policy makers and opinion leaders in California which, in turn, might lead to its wider application here. |
