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Hope for democracy how citizens can bring reason back into politics

"Concerned citizens across the globe fear that democracy is failing them, but civic reformers are crafting new tools that bring back into politics the wider public and its capacity for reason. This book spotlights one such innovation-the Citizens' Initiative Review (CIR). Each review gathe...

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Main Authors: Gastil, John (Author), Knobloch, Katherine R. (Author)
Format: Books Print Book
Language: English
Published: New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2020]
Subjects:
Local author.
Deliberative democracy.
Deliberative democracy > United States > States.
Political planning > Citizen participation.
Political planning > United States > States > Citizen participation.
Referendum.
Referendum > United States > States.
Political participation.
Political participation > United States > States.
Democracy > Social aspects.
Summary: "Concerned citizens across the globe fear that democracy is failing them, but civic reformers are crafting new tools that bring back into politics the wider public and its capacity for reason. This book spotlights one such innovation-the Citizens' Initiative Review (CIR). Each review gathers a random sample of twenty voters to study a statewide ballot measure. These citizen panelists interrogate advocates, opponents, and experts and distill what they learn into a one-page analysis for the official Voters' Pamphlet. The Oregon government permanently established the CIR in 2011, and reformers have tested it in locations across the United States and Europe. This book introduces the citizen activists responsible for the development of the CIR, as well as key participants at the inaugural CIR whose experiences changed their lives. Along with these stories, this book provides evidence of the CIR's impact on voters, who not only make better decisions as a result of reading the citizen analysis but also change the way they understand their role in government. The CIR fits into a larger set of deliberative reforms occurring around the world and into a long history of democratic experiments that stretch back through the American revolution to ancient Athens. The book weaves together historical vignettes, contemporary research, and personal narratives to show how citizens, civic reformers, and politicians can work together to revitalize modern democracy"--
Item Description: Includes index.
Physical Description: vii, 231 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
Bibliography: Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN: 9780190084523
0190084529
9780190084530
0190084537
Author Notes: John Gastil (PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison) is a professor in the Department of Communication Arts and Sciences and Political Science at the Pennsylvania State University, where he is a senior scholar at the McCourtney Institute for Democracy. Gastil's research focuses on the theory and practice of deliberative democracy, especially how small groups of people make decisions on public issues. The National Science Foundation has supported his research on the Oregon Citizens' Initiative Review, the Australian Citizens' Parliament, jury deliberation, and cultural cognition. Katherine R. Knobloch (PhD, University of Washington) is an assistant professor and the associate director of the Center for Public Deliberation (CPD) in the Department of Communication Studies at Colorado State University. At the CPD Knobloch trains undergraduates in civic engagement and facilitation and works with community partners to design and implement public forums. She studies the development, evaluation, and impact of deliberative public processes, with a focus on how the emergence of deliberative institutions alters communities and individuals. Her research has appeared in numerous academic publications, including Politics, American Politics Research, and the Journal of Applied Communication Research.

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