The Default Process: A Public Hearing

• Purpose of holding a public meeting is for the public to be heard. Hence the term, public hearing

More specifically, a public hearing is…“an open gathering of officials and citizens, in which

citizens are permitted to offer comments, but officials are not obliged to act on them, or typically, even to respond

publicly” -gov’t scholars Abigail Williamson and Archon Fung

In theory the public hearing consists of…

Inclusive exchange of diverse ideas from multiple perspectives

+ Attentive listening

+Clear articulation

=Public deliberation & a better/ more personal understanding of the issue from many points of

view(goal)

In Practice, they usually fail

Timing- sometimes the hearings are called after a bill is passed which results in people either complaining, or simply not participating. They feel that their input is meaningless at this point

Structure- they are constructed in a way that denies everyone of open discussion.

The public- can only ask limited questions at limited times

Government officials- can only give limited responses……No discussion

Attendence- usually poor◦ -fails to represent the larger population◦ -public officials get the impression that the public

does not care about the issue◦ -2003 Study found that 23% of citizens reported

attending one or more public hearings, while the majority of the rest said they had never been invited to one overall, set-up for a non-deliberative process

◦ -”I think frequently you get your vocal minority” at public hearings “instead of a balance of opinion.”

-anonymous

-Struggle between experts and laycitizens

Deliberative Meetings with Elected Officials

- In response to the failure of the previously mentioned types of meetings, new meeting designs have been innovated

Aimed to promote deliberation among participants

Brings public officials together with the public and stakeholders

◦ -Twenty-First Century Town Meeting◦ -Sequenced Forums◦ -Municipal Council Model

Twenty-first Century Town Meeting

-Americaspeaks- founded in 1995 by Carolyne Lukensmeyer

-held across the US- brings hundreds, possibly thousands of towns members together, but they seperate into small discussion groups led by a facilitator

-A central question is projected on a screen and each table submits their own set of solutions/ideas about the central question

-yielded many new ideas and concrete plans

Sequenced Forums

- a series of well-integrated forums (the book)

-first, separate meetings with experts and the public to hear their input

-private meetings among a small staff of officials discussed the ideas/input of each

-come together to discuss the decisions-Basically: assigns roles to experts, citizens,

and policy makers, allowing discussion and input from everyone, but organizing it

Municipal Council Model- hold regularly scheduled meeting to address

ongoing policy problems instead of special issues

-gives the public more power because they are guaranteed to be included regularly and therefore are assured that their input is meaningful

includes stakeholders (group representatives) more prominently

Veto power of the council if they do not approve the secretariat’s plan

Citizen-Centered Public Meetings

Random Samples

Random Selection in Politics by Lyn Carson and Brian Martin

Researched use of randomly selected samples of citizens historically through present day

Concluded that random selection “is a significant tool to transform politics.”

A powerful tool to support deliberation and democracy

Deliberative PollRandomly selected large group of citizens meet for 2-

3 days to discuss and reason through morally complex public problems

Discuss mainly in small groups, but meet as a large assembly to question experts and officials

1996 National Issues Convention, Austin TexasWenling City, China

Conclusion of studies found that citizens involved in deliberation tended to change their opinions over time because they were more informed on the issues

Citizens more accurate in beliefs after Poll

Citizen JuriesSmall group of randomly selected citizens (like

Deliberative Poll)Difference from Deliberative Poll is that a Citizen

Jury is trying to find if diverse citizens, if given information and time to deliberate, can come to a larger consensus on issues

Jurors control the proceedings, can call witnesses and experts to testify

Jurors have control so that true deliberation won’t be interfered with