Page 221 - Enabling National Initiatives to Take Democracy Beyond Elections

A civic lottery process draws lots by randomly selecting individuals in such a way that the selected participants match the demographic criteria for representation (for instance, an even gender balance). See also: Random selection Critical thinking – the objective analysis and evaluation of an issue in order to form a judgement. Participants rarely claim to know a great deal and that means their minds are available for critical thinking.The combination of explanation and instruction about the use of critical thinking, along with opportunities to identify questionable facts, or missing information, provides excellent preparation for asking high value questions of speakers and source documents. Deliberation – A long and careful consideration or discussion. A process of deliberation will offer people equal share of a discussion, and the broadest range of sources being considered Deliberative Democracy – When used with the term ‘democracy’, deliberation is about participants considering relevant facts from multiple points of view, talking with others to think critically about options before them and enlarging their perspectives, opinions and understandings. Deliberative democracy is different from representative democracy because it puts conversations, diverse perspectives and understanding at the centre of the decision rather than relying on polling and voting. Deliberative Poll – A Deliberative Poll takes a representative sample of the population, provides them with information about an issue and time to deliberate about it before coming up with a considered opinion. These results are then used as a guide to what the whole population would think if they had a similar chance to deliberate. 219