Skip to content
Longterm Wiki
Back

Deliberative Polling

web

Relevant to AI governance and alignment discussions around how to solicit meaningful public input on AI policy; deliberative methods could inform how democratic societies make collective decisions about AI development and deployment.

Metadata

Importance: 38/100homepageeducational

Summary

Deliberative Polling is a democratic process developed at Stanford's Center for Deliberative Democracy that brings together a representative sample of citizens to deliberate on policy issues with balanced information and expert input. The method aims to reveal what the public would think if given the opportunity to become genuinely informed and engage in structured dialogue. It has been used in over 100 projects worldwide to improve democratic decision-making on contentious issues.

Key Points

  • Combines random sampling with structured deliberation to capture informed public opinion rather than raw, unreflective preferences
  • Participants receive balanced briefing materials and engage with competing experts/stakeholders before and after deliberation
  • Designed to counter polarization and misinformation by exposing participants to diverse, high-quality information
  • Results often show significant opinion shifts, demonstrating that informed deliberation can bridge partisan divides
  • Used in governance contexts globally as a tool for legitimate, evidence-based public consultation on complex policy issues

Cited by 1 page

Cached Content Preview

HTTP 200Fetched Apr 9, 202615 KB
What is Deliberative Polling®? – DDL

 

 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 
 

 
 

 

 
 
 
 

 Nov
 DEC
 Jan
 

 
 

 
 02
 
 

 
 

 2021
 2022
 2023
 

 
 
 

 

 

 
 
success

 
fail

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 About this capture
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
COLLECTED BY

 

 

 
 
Collection: Common Crawl

 

 

 Web crawl data from Common Crawl.
 

 

 

 

 

 
TIMESTAMPS

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Wayback Machine - http://web.archive.org/web/20221202121809/https://cdd.stanford.edu/what-is-deliberative-polling/

 
 

 

 
 
 
 

 

 

 

Stanford University

 

 
 

 

 

 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 
CDD
People

Research

News and Events

Contact Us

Donate

Deliberative Polling®
Timeline

Online Deliberation Platform

Locations
Americas
Argentina

Brazil

Canada

Chile

United States

Africa
Ghana

Malawi

Senegal

Tanzania

Uganda

Asia
China

Hong Kong

Japan

Korea

Macao

Mongolia

Europe
Bulgaria

Denmark

European Union

Greece

Hungary

Iceland

Italy

Macedonia

Northern Ireland

Poland

United Kingdom

Oceania
Australia

Topics
Economy

Education

Elections

Energy Choices

Environment

Health

Internet Governance

Political Reform

Organizations
AASCU

By the People

Deliberation in Schools

ResilientAfrica Network

Material
Briefing Materials

Questionnaires

Data

Results

Videos

Classroom Toolkit

 

 

 
 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 
 
 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 
What is Deliberative Polling®?

 
 
 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 
 

 

 
 

 

 
 
 
 

 

 

 
 

 

Table of Contents

The Problem

The Process

Applications

History

Case Studies

Selected Results
Unification of Korea, South Korea (August 2011)

London Power 2010: Countdown to New Politics, United Kingdom (January 2010)

What to do with the Euro Cup stadium in Poznan?, Poland (November 2009)

Europolis: A Deliberative Polity-Making Process, European Union (June 2009)

Public Servants Careers Reform, Porto Alegre, Brazil (June 2009)

Unemployment and Job Creation, Hungary (May-June 2008)

Policies toward the Roma, Sofia, Bulgaria (2007)

The Problem

Citizens are often uninformed about key public issues. Conventional polls represent the public’s surface impressions of sound bites and headlines. The public, subject to what social scientists have called “rational ignorance,” has little reason to confront trade-offs or invest time and effort in acquiring information or coming to a considered judgment.

The Process

Deliberative Polling® [1] is an attempt to use public opinion research in a new and constructive way. A random, representative sample is first polled on the targeted issues. After this baseline poll, members of the sample are invited to gather at a single place for a weekend in order to discuss the issues. Carefully balanced briefing materials are sent to the participants and are also made publicly available. The participants engage in dialogue with competing experts and political l

... (truncated, 15 KB total)
Resource ID: 63b242b3de51d9df | Stable ID: sid_O8Q2FbPxGE