Page 23 - Enabling National Initiatives to Take Democracy Beyond Elections

Language In this handbook, there are regular references to deliberation in many different forms. No one type of deliberation is a purer form of deliberative democracy. Similarly, there are many different ways for describing what in theory is a deliberative mini-public, a group of randomly selected members of a community who acquire knowledge and work together through facilitated deliberation to find a common ground and democratic decision. In practice, a deliberative mini-public might be a citizens’ jury, citizens’ assembly, collaboration hub, observatorio, community solutions panel or a peoples’ panel. This handbook will use these terms interchangeably. Each naming style has different benefits and disadvantages; what is important is that you understand that these different styles are all variations of the same core idea. 21