Coming to Public Judgement

Video Presentation (with Jack and Buttermore)
Conference Discussion

The ten rules for resolution are found in chapter 13:

1. On any given issue, it is usually safe to assume that the public and the experts will be out of phase. To bridge the gap leaders must learn what the public's starting point is and how to address it.

2. Do not depend on the experts to present issues.

3. Learn what the public's pet preoccupation is and address it before discussing any other facet of the issue.

4. Give the public the incentive of knowing that someone is listening...and cares.

5. Limit the number of issues to which people must attend at any one time to two or three at most.

6. Working through is best accomplished when people have choices to consider.

7. Leaders must take the initiative in highlighting the value components of choices.

8. To move beyond the Asay-yes-to-everything@ form of procrastination, the public needs help.

9. When two conflicting values are both important to the public, resolution should be sought by tinkering to preserve some element of each.

10. Use the time factor as a key part of the communication strategy

How can the public become engaged in current issues and participate to the democratic process? David Mathews, president of the Kettering foundation has a vision of citizens becoming engaged in Adeliberative democracy@. To facilitate interaction among the citizenry, the Kettering Foundation identifies three or more paramount issues each year and encourages deliberation of each issue in the format of a forum which focuses on choice work. The National Issues Forums Institue is a nationwide network which ecncourages small or large groups of people to engage in deliberation. National Issues books are written by the Public Agenda and the Kettering Foundation are are published by the Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company. Each issue book approaches the pertinent issue from the vantage point of three distinct choices. A moderator leads the consideration of each choice separately, bringing out the advantages and drawbacks of each approach, the costs and trade-offs of each choice, and the underlying values found in each. This process aids the participants in finding a politically permissible direction in coming to public judgment.

In this process of coming to public judgment, Daniel Yankelovich identifies seven steps that the public must work through to progress from incoherent opinion to thoughtful judgment. These predictable stages are:

1. People become aware of an issue or an aspect of it.

Opinions are unstable, but feelings may be very strong.

2. A sense of urgency develops.

There is a realization that something needs to be done...now.

The media is very good at bringing out the first two stages of Aconsciousness raising@.

Extremes emerge. There may be solution wars.

3. People start to explore choices for dealing with the issue.

Leaders and experts often formulate these choices and attempt to Asell@ their solutions through campaigns. Often these are not the best or only choices.

4. Resistance to facing costs and trade-offs. People want it all, wishful thinking.

People want to say Ayes@ to everything.

5. People start to weigh the pros and cons of alternatives.

Now the public makes an effort to understand the choices and their consequences, and wrestle with the conflicts over what they value most.

6. People take a stand intellectually.

People see the intellectual reasons for making one choice over others, but may not be prepared for the reality of trade-offs.

7. Making a responsible judgment morally and emotionally.

People overcome the impulse to put their needs and desires first. The commitments to society take precedent. The ethical dimension asserts itself.

Deliberative forums will consist of participants who are at various stages. By working through the choices together, collectively they may come to an idea of what they could all live with and head toward public judgment.