Deliberative opinion caucus: A new mechanism for democratic input and judgment

Abstract

Local governments, including school districts, are faced with the same crisis of legitimacy and credibility confronting all democratic systems today. To develop greater public input and confidence and to determine better actual "public judgment" on issues, one local school district created a 'deliberative opinion caucus' from models by Dahl, Fishkin, and others. Although the 'caucus' failed to reach a statistically representative cross-section of the community as planned, it instituted a mechanism enhancing participants' perceived efficacy and policymakers' knowledge of community desires. Its success provides all local governments a means to improve public knowledge of and confidence in local policymaking.