Inside the laboratory

CoVision worked in partnership with AmericaSpeaks to pull off another ambitious and unprecedented experiment in citizen democracy in the United States. It was our great honor to be part of a successful, cutting edge, proof-of-concept national convening that now stands as a living example of the potential role of citizen deliberation to inform national decision-making.

On this Saturday, June 26, 2010, 3,300 citizens in nearly 60 different locations across the country held a conversation on fiscal strategy. Like many other countries around the world, the United States needs to take action on its federal deficit and chart a course for a sustainable economic future. The event that took place on Saturday holds out the hope – through successful demonstration – that such a strategy can be effectively designed in coordination with the real sentiments, values and choices of the citizenry. The results of this massive citizen deliberation can be viewed at:

http://usabudgetdiscussion.org/our-budget-our-economy-june-26/

The United States is a very large and geographically dispersed democracy, and many people (including many Americans) have wondered whether it is possible to effectively use citizen deliberation to inform and shape policy in such a country. There is no road map for doing so, and very few models to follow. Instead, those who believe it is possible have had to exhibit great courage of conviction and perseverance, along with great ingenuity and creativity, in order to forge experiments that would prove the possibility and it’s effectiveness.

And in addition to those designing and conducting the experiments, others have had to share the vision and take risks to fund and support these experiments. Not only have these experiments required financial support, they have required uncountable hours of volunteer time by experienced professional facilitators who play the key role in the micro-conversations that, by means of the technical infrastructure, become a single national conversation.

This was the grandest experiment yet by AmericaSpeaks – working closely with their vast network of experienced facilitators and their key methodology partners, like CoVision – and the results were excellent. For us at CoVision, not only is this important as a step toward a better fiscal future for the United Sates, but just as critically, it is a step toward a better process for policy making in our own country, and hopefully a model for other nations and states as well.

We hope this paves the way toward greater adoption of this process.

Mad social scientists trying to build a citizens’ democracy

As with any experiment this convening required materials, a method, and a specific environment. The whole experiment can be seen more clearly as the combination of eight different necessary elements. Listed as number six below, the CoVision methodology played a key role among many others.

So how was this done? What were the constituent parts?

First they needed the basic building blocks of such a conversation – the citizens themselves – demographically representing the greater population of the country

This essential element was carefully and painstakingly gathered over many weeks in many different locals throughout the country – with respect to the individuals, and great attention to their demographic accuracy

Second, they needed an environment that allowed the people to deliberate together in a constructive, respectful and open-ended manner – allowing them to express their own views and to listen to and appreciate each others’ (sometimes differing) views

This environment was set up by the experimenters based on many successful experiments in the past – ten citizens seated at a round table, guided through their discussions by experienced facilitators

Third, the experiment required a dynamic subject – something that was absolutely crucial to the life of the participants and to the future that they are creating for their children and grandchildren

For years AmericaSpeaks has worked to create an opportunity to discuss the shared economic future of our country

Fourth, they needed a structure for talking about this subject

A great deal of time and energy and focus went into shaping a non-partisan mapping of the issue and its potential solutions, and a sequence of discussions to allow the people to work toward a shared understanding and toward the beginnings of consensus on how to take action

Fifth, they needed a way to conduct the experiment across the country simultaneously,

Satellite broadcast, webcasting and Skype were skillfully interwoven to create a media experience that tied together meeting sites in 19 cities around the country and 40 smaller community groupings.

Sixth, the experiment required that it be a “national conversation” – with every sequential discussion building on the thoughts and expressions of all of the citizens from every part of the country

A state-of-the-art computer interface running over the internet allowed each deliberating table group in every area of the country to instantly send their thoughts and ideas to the central site in Philadelphia. And a carefully designed and orchestrated 23 person “Theme Team” was able to synthesize everyone’s ideas in real time, creating a single conversation that stretched across the country.

Seventh, the experiment required that all of the people be able to express their preferences on the issues they were deliberating about – in order for everyone to know where the group as a whole stood, and what level of consensus was built.

Voting technology was employed that enabled people at every site to send in their preference at once and see immediate counts of how the whole group had voted

Eighth, the groundwork had to be in place so that the outcomes of the national conversation would directly impact elected representatives - who are in the position to act on behalf of the will that was expressed in the conversation.

Special care was taken to cultivate the support and buy-in of key people in these roles all across the political spectrum.

The careful execution of all of these elements by a small group of dedicated deliberation scientists – using highly detailed planning informed by their earlier experiments – set a stake in the ground for future efforts to shape government policy that accurately reflects the desires of the public it serves.

Posted by Karl Danskin