Growing numbers of scholars, practitioners, politicians, and citizens recognize the value of deliberative civic engagement processes that enable citizens and governments to come together in public spaces and engage in constructive dialogue, informed discussion, and decisive deliberation. This book seeks to fill a gap in empirical studies in deliberative democracy by studying the assembly of the Australian Citizens' Parliament (ACP), which took place in Canberra on February 6-8, 2009. The ACP addressed the question "How can the Australian political system be strengthened to serve us better?" The ACP's Canberra assembly is the first large-scale, face-to-face deliberative project to be completely audio-recorded and transcribed, enabling an unprecedented level of qualitative and quantitative assessment of participants' actual spoken discourse. Each chapter reports on different research questions for different purposes to benefit different audiences. Combined, they exhibit how diverse modes of research focused on a single event can enhance both theoretical and practical knowledge about deliberative democracy.
Growing numbers of scholars, practitioners, politicians, and citizens recognize the value of deliberative civic engagement processes that enable citizens and governments to come together in public spaces and engage in constructive dialogue, informed discussion, and decisive deliberation. This book seeks to fill a gap in empirical studies in deliberative democracy by studying the assembly of the Australian Citizens' Parliament (ACP), which took place in Canberra on February 6-8, 2009. The ACP addressed the question "How can the Australian political system be strengthened to serve us better?" The ACP's Canberra assembly is the first large-scale, face-to-face deliberative project to be completely audio-recorded and transcribed, enabling an unprecedented level of qualitative and quantitative assessment of participants' actual spoken discourse. Each chapter reports on different research questions for different purposes to benefit different audiences. Combined, they exhibit how diverse modes of research focused on a single event can enhance both theoretical and practical knowledge about deliberative democracy.
Contents
List of Illustrations
List of Tables
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Lyn Carson, John Gastil, Janette Hartz-Karp, and Ron Lubensky
Part I: Deliberative Design and Innovation
1 Origins of the First Citizens’ Parliament
Lyn Carson and Luca Belgiorno-Nettis
2 Putting Citizens in Charge: Comparing the Australian Citizens’ Parliament and the Australia 2020 Summit
Janette Hartz-Karp and Lyn Carson
3 Choose Me: The Challenges of National Random Selection
Ron Lubensky and Lyn Carson
4 Grafting an Online Parliament onto a Face-to-Face Process
Brian Sullivan and Janette Hartz-Karp
Part II: Exploring Deliberation
5 Listening Carefully to the Citizens’ Parliament: A Narrative Account
Ron Lubensky
6 Deliberative Design and Storytelling in the Australian Citizens’ Parliament
Laura W. Black and Ron Lubensky
7 What Counts as Deliberation? Comparing Participant and Observer Ratings
John Gastil
8 Hearing All Sides? Soliciting and Managing Different Viewpoints in Deliberation
Anna Wiederhold and John Gastil
9 Sit Down and Speak Up: Stability and Change in Group Participation
Joseph A. Bonito, Renee A. Meyers, John Gastil, and Jennifer Ervin
Part III: The Flow of Beliefs and Ideas
10 Changing Orientations Toward Australian Democracy
Simon Niemeyer, Luisa Batalha, and John S. Dryzek
11 Staying Focused: Tracing the Flow of Ideas from the Online Parliament to Canberra
John Gastil and John Wilkerson
12 Evidence of Peer Influence in the Citizens’ Parliament
Luc Tucker and John Gastil
Part IV: Facilitation and Organizer Effects
13 The Unsung Heroes of a Deliberative Process: Reflections on the Role of Facilitators at the Citizens’ Parliament
Max Hardy and Kath Fisher, with Janette Hartz-Karp
14 Are They Doing What They Are Supposed to Do? Assessing the Facilitating Process of the Australian Citizens’ Parliament
Li Li, Fletcher Ziwoya, Laura W. Black, and Janette Hartz-Karp
15 Supporting the Citizen Parliamentarians: Mobilizing Perspectives and Informing Discussion
Ian Marsh and Lyn Carson
16 Investigation of (and Introspection on) Organizer Bias
Lyn Carson
Part V: Impacts and Reflections
17 Participant Accounts of Political Transformation
Katie Knobloch and John Gastil
18 Becoming Australian: Forging a National Identity
Janette Hartz-Karp, Patrick Anderson, John Gastil, and Andrea Felicetti
19 Mediated Meta-deliberation: Making Sense of the Australian Citizens’ Parliament
Eike Mark Rinke, Katie Knobloch, John Gastil, and Lyn Carson
20 How Not to Introduce Deliberative Democracy: The 2010 Citizens’ Assembly on Climate Change Proposal
Lyn Carson
Conclusion: Theoretical and Practical Implications of the Citizens’ Parliament Experience
Janette Hartz-Karp, Lyn Carson, John Gastil, and Ron Lubensky
Index
Lyn Carson is Professor in the Business Programs Unit at the University of Sydney Business School and a co-initiator of the Australian Citizens’ Parliament.
John Gastil is Professor and Head of Communication Arts and Sciences at The Pennsylvania State University.
Janette Hartz-Karp is Professor of Sustainability at Curtin University’s Sustainability Policy Institute.
Ron Lubensky is a doctoral candidate at the School of Humanities and Communication Arts, University of Western Sydney.
“As innovators in democratic process, we know how much we depend on
learning from practical trials and real-world experiences. This
work captures the experience in detail and provides an important
reference point for anyone hoping to bring deliberation and the
citizen’s voice back into how we do government.”—Iain Walker,
executive director, The newDemocracy Foundation
“This study shows that deliberative capacity, personal efficacy,
and common political ground can be developed through the careful
design of deliberative institutions among ordinary citizens; even
so, meaningful political influence over a broader social scale
remains as elusive as ever. The editors present valuable and
hard-won lessons for citizens, leaders, and academics who hope to
realize the practical political and moral benefits of a more truly
deliberative and democratic public life. The Australian Citizens’
Parliament and the Future of Deliberative Democracy is full of
practical wisdom for anyone who sets out to create a democratic
deliberative space for ordinary citizens.”—Mark E. Button,
University of Utah
“From conception to conclusion, this book narrates and analyzes an
ambitious experiment in deliberative democracy: the Australian
Citizens’ Parliament. Integrating social science analyses of many
kinds of data with reflections by philosophers and civic
reform–minded public participation practitioners, the volume offers
a rich sense of what occurred in the different phases of the ACP
process and provides a nuanced assessment of the strengths and
weaknesses of this large-scale deliberative democracy experiment.
This wonderful case study is a must-read for everyone interested in
deliberative democracy.”—Karen Tracy, University of Colorado, and
author of Challenges of Ordinary Democracy
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