Participants in the Allegheny Forum Deliberative Poll(R) on Good Government
Program for Deliberative Democracy
The Program for Deliberative Democracy strives to improve public decision-making through informed citizen deliberations. The Program utilizes the principles and practices of deliberative democracy to create a protocol-based setting for informed and well-structured conversations.
There are two main outreach activities of the Program: Deliberative Community Forums and Deliberative Campus Forums.
By providing background materials from the deliberative events and a report on the deliberation results to the press, libraries, community organizations and in other public venues, we believe that we can raise the level of community-wide awareness of and involvement in the pressing issues of social choice that face us in our lives as citizens. We have also found that deliberative democratic practice not only informs stakeholders of what our citizens think, but it also empowers individuals and strengthens civic engagement.