Deliberative Polling

Drawing on the work of James Fishkin (2009) and the Kettering Foundation's National Issues Forum (Melville, Willingham, & Dedrick, 2005), polling is used to prep people for a discussion and to explore how it has informed their thinking once it's concluded.

Purposes

• To promote deep and informed discussion about an important public policy issue
• To explore viewpoints on the issue that participants do not know well
• To gain practice in taking a stance on issues and giving reasons for that stance
• To understand the dynamics of people changing their minds in discussion

How It Works

• Participants are polled about their initial thinking on an issue of local or national importance.
• They are then assigned briefing materials that present them with three or four clearly differentiated positions on the issue.
• They study these materials, noting areas of confusion and jotting down questions that these materials raise.
• Participants then gather for a rather lengthy discussion (up to two hours) that begins by generating ground rules governing conduct during the discussion.
• The moderator then summarizes the various positions on the issue or plays a short video that lays out the different perspectives.
• He or she then leads people through a discussion in which equal time is granted to examine assumptions, ask questions, identify areas of confusion, and share relevant experiences for each position.
• The moderator asks participants to direct their comments to each other (not to the moderator) and to ask questions that help participants articulate their assumptions and explain their reasons.
• Once all positions have been discussed, participants share what they have learned and how or whether they changed their minds as a result of the discussion.
• An exit poll is taken to assess how people have been swayed by the conversation.

Where and When It Works Well

1. Community forums. This works well in community forums in which there is shared interest in a broad public policy issue affecting a lot of people. People who are invested in the issue are more willing to take time to engage fully with the arguments and claims for various positions and to deliberate thoughtfully about desirable options.
2. Academic settings. Deliberative Polling can be a great way to investigate a topic that has three or four distinct theoretical traditions informing its study, three or four different analytical frameworks, or ethical issues that have several possible responses.
3. When time is not an issue. This process takes at least half a day. People have to study the position briefings, establish ground rules, and engage in a rather lengthy and intense discussion of the different positions, so only do this if there is time to do it justice.

What Users Appreciate

1. It develops critical thinking. This requires people to examine their assumptions, provide convincing evidence, and articulate reasons—all important aspects of critical thinking.
2. It affirms the value of informed opinions. Whether people change their minds is less relevant than whether they develop opinions informed by data and evidence.
3. Understanding opposing views. When people learn about contradictory viewpoints, this can help in locating areas of common ground.

What to Watch Out For

1. Fatigue. This is a lengthy process that can be trying for some participants.
2. Sloppy, incomplete briefing materials. For this to work well, the briefing materials on the positions must be factually accurate, clearly written, and concisely expressed. Compiling such briefing materials takes time.
3. Facilitator bias. Moderators must remain neutral and not implicitly support any particular position. Their job is to help people educate one another about unfamiliar and less-favored positions.
4. Shortchanging the final discussion. It's important to hear at the end of the discussion about what people have learned and whether their minds have been changed in any way. Make sure to leave time for this final dialogue.

Questions That Fit This Protocol

Examples of policy questions could be the following:

• “What tax policies are fair and not overly burdensome, yet are sufficient to finance the nation's top priorities?”
• “What does health care in a democracy look like?”
• “How can we address the stubbornly high unemployment rate?”
• “How can a community improve mediocre public school systems?”
• “What's a just way of dealing with immigration into the US?”