Public deliberation provides evidence base

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has published a report on a series of deliberative events which were run on constitutional reform. The report is entitled People and power: shaping democracy, rights and responsibilities.

The report makes the case for conducting deliberative research – a dialogue tool; often an event where participants discuss their views on an issue– with the public over more traditional methods, such as focus groups. The report argues that deliberative research goes beyond ‘top of the mind’ response and:

“enable[s] people to play a full and informed role in debating complex issues – rationalising arguments, using public reason; taking the time and space to reach a measured viewpoint.”

Included in the key findings of the report is a specific on the value of deliberative research which shows that a “significant number of participants...changed their mind during the initial discussions.” This reinforces a number of findings by the academic James Fishkin who has pioneered deliberative polling research. It is an example of what Fishkin calls aggregate or ‘net’ attitude change where a statistically significant number of people shift their views in the course of deliberation. Generalising about deliberative polling Fishkin concludes:

“statistically significant net change is far more the rule than the exception but […] it varies across issues and settings.”

The MoJ report concludes with the following on the benefits of dialogue with the public and on the future of constitutional reform:

“Deliberative approaches are clearly valued by participants as a means to build public views into the heart of decision making. In the wake of recent controversies, there is now an ideal opportunity to build on the platform provided by this study and explore wider constitutional reform to help reinvigorate democracy and our sense of who we are.”

Sciencewise-ERC public dialogues have pioneered the use of deliberative public research, and a recent report reviews the key messages from the 13 public dialogues that have taken place to date:

And Sciencewise-ERC has published a new tool to enable you to assess the readiness of your organisation or initiative to use public engagement and deliberation.