National Civic Review articles from December 2004

National Civic Review archives from December 2004

Note from the guest editor.
December 22, 2004... The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation's Conflict Resolution program is pleased to support this issue of the National Civic Review, which presents a range of commentary, research, news, and reports on innovative practice and inquiry that...

Public deliberation: where we are and where can we go?
December 22, 2004... This article and the research upon which it is based were generously supported by a grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. In this essay, we step back from developments in the emerging field of public deliberation to survey...

Strengthening participatory approaches to local governance: learning the lessons from abroad.
December 22, 2004... Portions of this essay are adopted from a working paper prepared by John Gaventa for the Neighborhood Renewal Unit of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister in the United Kingdom, on "Representation, Community Leadership, and Participation:...

The real world of deliberative democracy: a roundtable discussion.
December 22, 2004... "Lakewood is Colorado's fourth largest city, and we've got a population of about 145,000," says Mayor Steve Burkholder. "Typically the council chambers are not packed, but if it is an issue of very high emotion, the chambers are jammed. We have...

Collaborative governance practices and democracy.
December 22, 2004... The Sacramento Water Forum was a contentious group of environmentalists, business leaders, farmers, and local government officials who spent six years in an intensive consensus-building process. As a result of the success of this effort,...

Deliberation's darker side: six questions for Iris Marion Young and Jane Mansbridge.
December 22, 2004... Most advocates of public participation and civic engagement view growing interest in the various forms of deliberative democracy with great optimism, but against this tide some critics worry about less-noticed dangers and pathologies of...

ChoiceDialogues and Deliberative Polls: two approaches to deliberative democracy.
December 22, 2004... When policy makers or the media want citizen input on subjects as diverse as health care, immigration, or foreign policy, there are traditional methods available to them: polls, public hearings, focus groups. But those methods only allow...

Deliberative democracy networks: a resource guide.
December 22, 2004... The recent growth in popularity of deliberative democracy has been a grassroots phenomenon. Practitioners and scholars of deliberation are not always aware of what others are doing in the field. In 2002, however, the William and Flora Hewlett...

Electoral reform and deliberative democracy: can we enrich democracy by joining the two fields?(Political Reform)
December 22, 2004... For those of us who care about making our democracy as vibrant and inclusive as possible, one of the most encouraging trends of the last several years is how much growth and activity there has been in the two related fields of deliberative...

Oregon experience launches community solutions partnership.(Community Building)
December 22, 2004... The National Policy Consensus Center (NPCC) is a research and development center for new governing models that apply consensus-building strategies to problem-solving efforts and policy making. Over the past two years the center has hosted...

Finding the right path: public agencies and civic engagement.(Trends In Civic Engagement)
December 22, 2004... Public agencies across the nation are under increasing pressure to engage the public. Some agencies feel the pressure because they have failed to meet the public's expectations, or they are seen as disconnected from the public and must regain...