To answer the question directly, the primary objective of public discussion is to promote democratic discussion of policy concerns as a way of contributing to citizens’ individual and social choices and, through them, to useful public policy making. This objective...
IF's public discussions routinely begin with an exploration of the concerns relating to the topic at hand. Discussants then move on to explore various conceptual possibilities for addressing those concerns. There are various schools of thought among IF...
You know how you sometimes feel as though you’ve got just the answer to a question or the right description for something—only 10 minutes or a half hour too late? That happened to me last week, just after I’d finished up a presentation at my son’s middle school. ...
Americans are privileged to enjoy perhaps the world’s strongest legal safeguards on the freedoms of speech, press, and assembly. Yet as undeniably important as these safeguards might be, they do not by themselves ensure either widespread or robust democratic...
Conventional views of the policy-making process are helpful--as far as they go. But they usually leave out a good deal, especially with respect to the potential role of democratic discussion. Consider, for example: Emotions, habits, beliefs, attitudes,...
A third alternative to thinking about public discussion as debate or as the immediate prelude to decision-making is to understand it as a means of testing contrasting conceptual possibilities. Testing of contrasting conceptual possibilities—whether these have been...
IF’s public discussions typically move from exploration of an area of concern to exploring and developing contrasting conceptual possibilities for addressing it. The purposes of exploring and developing contrasting conceptual possibilities. Public discussion of...
Citizen dialogue and decision-making processes can take many forms, depending on the objectives of participants, their place in the policy-making process, and the constraints within which they are working. Still, citizen dialogue continues to be thought of almost...
Rather than issues or problems, IF public discussions focus on what we generally refer to as an “area of concern.” This isn’t a mysterious label, but it is meant to signal one of the distinctions between IF’s approach and that of other discussion processes. An...
IF’s mission is to “promote and enhance democratic discussion.” Not just any discussion, but democratic discussion. IF’s facilitators have a significant role to play in achieving this core aspect of IF’s mission—both before and during public discussions. Before...