Dryzek's Senate Lecture
The Parliament of Australian runs a Senate Occasional Lecture series, at which Prof John Dryzek (ANU) spoke last Friday. John is one of the chief investigators on the Citizens Parliament project, and spoke about it. The transcript and audio are now available for download. I like John's succinct description of deliberation, as …
… a particular kind of communication that ideally induces reflection about preferences, beliefs, and values in non-coercive fashion, and that connects particular interests to more general principles. One of its key virtues is reciprocity: communicating in terms that others who do not share one's point of view or framework can accept. Deliberation is different from adversarial debate. The initial aim is not to win, but to understand.
John also gave an early indication of the perspective shifting that occurred, based on the evidence collected using Q-Methodology.
For example, we find that one particular point of view increased substantially from beginning to end of the process. This point of view represents a positive appraisal of the Australian political system and their place in it. The moral I'd draw from that is that if you give people the opportunity to deliberate, they see the political system as something that is theirs and worthwhile.
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