Page 222 - Enabling National Initiatives to Take Democracy Beyond Elections

220 A Project of the UN Democracy Fund (UNDEF) Dotmocracy – an established facilitation method used to describe voting with dot stickers or marks with a marker pen. In dot-voting participants vote on their chosen options using a limited number of stickers or marks with pens — dot stickers being the most common. This sticker voting approach is a form of cumulative voting. Facilitation – a process in which a person who is acceptable to all members of a group, substantively neutral and has no decision- making authority, intervenes to help a group improve the way it identifies and solves problems and makes decisions in order to increase the group’s effectiveness. Facilitator – one who contributes structure and processes so groups are able the function effectively and make high quality decisions. Government – the political system or group of people given the authority to govern a community. In the case of its broad definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Opinion Polling – A scientific, non-biased public opinion poll is a type of survey or inquiry designed to measure the public’s views regarding a particular topic or series of topics. Trained interviewers ask questions of people chosen at random from the population being measured. Responses are given, and interpretations are made based on the results. It is important in a random sample that everyone in the population being studied has an equal chance of participating. Otherwise, the results could be biased and, therefore, not representative of the population. Representative samples are chosen in order to make generalizations about a particular population being studied. Process Design – A document that explains and justifies the different decisions made when designing a project.