Page 55 - Enabling National Initiatives to Take Democracy Beyond Elections

At its simplest, deliberation involves participants in a discussion having equal chance to speak and contribute, balanced by the broadest access to sources of information. Deliberation is done by parliaments. When you face the hardest decision- making dilemmas, then make this same standard your expectation of citizens seeking to inform parliaments. Deliberation can be done as an individual or as a group. There are merits in both, but where sufficient time exists, we think the exploration of trade-off and compromise which comes from doing this as a group has the most value. 53