The Australian Citizens’ Parliament and the Future of Deliberative Democracy

Edited by Lyn Carson, John Gastil, Janette Hartz-Karp, and Ron Lubensky

Growing numbers of scholars, practitioners, politicians, and citizens recognize the value of deliberative civic engagement processes that enable citizens and governments to come together in public spaces and engage in constructive dialogue, informed discussion, and decisive deliberation. This book seeks to fill a gap in empirical studies in deliberative democracy by studying the assembly of the Australian Citizens’ Parliament (ACP), which took place in Canberra on February 6–8, 2009. The ACP addressed the question “How can the Australian political system be strengthened to serve us better?”

The ACP’s Canberra assembly is the first large-scale, face-to-face deliberative project to be completely audio-recorded and transcribed, enabling an unprecedented level of qualitative and quantitative assessment of participants’ actual spoken discourse. Each chapter reports on different research questions for different purposes to benefit different audiences. Combined, they exhibit how diverse modes of research focused on a single event can enhance both theoretical and practical knowledge about deliberative democracy.

 

The four chapters in the flipbook below are only available in this online version.

 

 

Contents

List of Illustrations

List of Tables

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Lyn Carson, John Gastil, Janette Hartz-Karp, and Ron Lubensky

Part I: Deliberative Design and Innovation

• Chapter 1. Origins of the First Citizens’ Parliament 
  Lyn Carson and Luca Belgiorno-Nettis
• Chapter 2. Putting Citizens in Charge: Comparing the Australian Citizens’ Parliament and the Australia 2020 Summit 
  Janette Hartz-Karp and Lyn Carson
• Chapter 3. Choose Me: The Challenges of National Random Selection  (Sample)
  Ron Lubensky and Lyn Carson
• Chapter 4. Grafting an Online Parliament onto a Face-to-Face Process  (Sample)
  Brian Sullivan and Janette Hartz-Karp

Part II: Exploring Deliberation

• Chapter 5. Listening Carefully to the Citizens’ Parliament: A Narrative Account  (Sample)
  Ron Lubensky
• Chapter 6. Deliberative Design and Storytelling in the Australian Citizens’ Parliament  (Sample)
  Laura W. Black and Ron Lubensky
• Chapter 7. What Counts as Deliberation? Comparing Participant and Observer Ratings  (Sample)
  John Gastil
• Chapter 8. Hearing All Sides? Soliciting and Managing Different Viewpoints in Deliberation  (Sample)
  Anna Wiederhold and John Gastil
• Chapter 9. Sit Down and Speak Up: Stability and Change in Group Participation  (Sample)
  Joseph A. Bonito, Renee A. Meyers, John Gastil, and Jennifer Ervin

Part III: The Flow of Beliefs and Ideas

• Chapter 10. Changing Orientations Toward Australian Democracy  (Sample)
  Simon Niemeyer, Luisa Batalha, and John S. Dryzek
• Chapter 11. Staying Focused: Tracing the Flow of Ideas from the Online Parliament to Canberra  (Sample)
  John Gastil and John Wilkerson
• Chapter 12. Evidence of Peer Influence in the Citizens’ Parliament  (Sample)
  Luc Tucker and John Gastil

Part IV: Facilitation and Organizer Effects

• Chapter 13. The Unsung Heroes of a Deliberative Process: Reflections on the Role of Facilitators at the Citizens’ Parliament  (Sample)
  Max Hardy and Kath Fisher, with Janette Hartz-Karp
• Chapter 14. Are They Doing What They Are Supposed to Do? Assessing the Facilitating Process of the Australian Citizens’ Parliament  (Sample)
  Li Li, Fletcher Ziwoya, Laura W. Black, and Janette Hartz-Karp
• Chapter 15. Supporting the Citizen Parliamentarians: Mobilizing Perspectives and Informing Discussion   (Sample)
  Ian Marsh and Lyn Carson
• Chapter 16. Investigation of (and Introspection on) Organizer Bias   (Sample)
  Lyn Carson

Part V: Impacts and Reflections

• Chapter 17. Participant Accounts of Political Transformation   (Sample)
  Katie Knobloch and John Gastil
• Chapter 18. Becoming Australian: Forging a National Identity  (Sample)

Janette Hartz-Karp, Patrick Anderson, John Gastil, and Andrea Felicetti

• Chapter 19. Mediated Meta-deliberation: Making Sense of the Australian Citizens’ Parliament   (Sample)
  Eike Mark Rinke, Katie Knobloch, John Gastil, and Lyn Carson
• Chapter 20. How Not to Introduce Deliberative Democracy: The 2010 Citizens’ Assembly on Climate Change Proposal   (Sample)
  Lyn Carson

 

• Conclusion: Theoretical and Practical Implications of the Citizens’ Parliament Experience   (Sample)
  Janette Hartz-Karp, Lyn Carson, John Gastil, and Ron Lubensky
• Index  (Sample)

 

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