What is Deliberation?
( . . .and Public Deliberation?)
see also:
deliberative democracy
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Deliberation is "the kind of reasoning and talking we do when a difficult decision has to be made, a great deal is at stake, and there are competing options or approaches we might take. It means to weigh possible actions carefully by examining what is most valuable to us." -The Kettering Foundation
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"Deliberation refers either to a particular sort of discussion - one that involves the careful and serious weighing of reasons for and against some proposition-or to an interior process by which an individual weighs reasons for and against courses of action." - J.D. Fearon
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Sadly, what passes for debate in
politics today is at best,
arguing and at worst mutual
smear campaigns, which makes it difficult for citizens to participate and even to understand what the real issues are.
Open Politics supports public deliberation as as a means to
democracy and
good government. It does so by encouraging the examination of
issues,
positions
arguments, discouraging
rhetoric and facilitiating
consensus building to achieve contructive collaborative decisions.
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