Experimenting with a Democratic Ideal: Deliberative Polling and Public Opinion

Abstract

The values of deliberation and political equality have proven hard to achieve simultaneously. Deliberative Polling, which embodies both, provides a useful window on deliberative democracy. The results, responding to ‘defeatist,’ ‘extenuationist,’ and ‘alarmist’ critiques, show that ordinary people can deliberate, that they benefit from doing so, and that the process neither biases nor polarizes their opinions.