Deliberative Democracy in an Unlikely Place: Deliberative Polling in China

Abstract

Talk of democratic reform sometimes focuses on talk. The aspiration of 'deliberative democracy' is for the mass public to influence policy making through public discussion. The common presumption is that this is an advanced version of democracy, possible only in established democracies. Even there, there are doubts. Some contend that ordinary citizens cannot deal with complex policy issues, 1 others that their deliberations will be distorted by gender or class inequalities, 2 and yet others that they will be ineluctably polarizing. 3 In less fully democratic societies like China's, the prospects may seem slimmer. Yet China has now been home to four Deliberative Polls. Here, we report on the first, in Zeguo Township in Wenling City. This was a local public consultation that attempted to affect policy choices, while fulfilling some ambitious criteria from democratic theory. We consider how well it succeeded.

Assessing political participation on the Internet in contemporary China

“…In recent years, there has been an increasing trend for ordinary citizens to observe and monitor the making, passing, implementation, revision, and annulment of national and local policies. Chinese netizens not only have used the Internet to reveal corruption and misconducts of governmental officials during the policy implementation stage but also have tried to monitor and influence policies that are pertinent to their daily lives (Fishkin, 2010;He & Warren, 2011;Peng, Lan, & Ke, 2004). Because of the emergence and growth of this new participatory behavior as well as its increasing impact on Chinese politics, we include monitoring the governmental policy process in our examination of online political participation.…”

Stakeholders' Attitudes Change on Wood Biomass Utilization by Online Deliberation

“…, Fishkin et al 7) )．この種の参加型手法には，他 にもコンセンサス会議や共同事実確認(Joint Fact-finding)な ど様々なものが世界各地で適用されてきている一方で， より参加の機会を広げるツールとして，同種の試みをオ ンラインで実施する方法も少しずつではあるが蓄積され つつある．例えばDavies and Gangadharan 8) やLuskin et al 9) は 討論型世論調査のオンライン上の実験を，Grönlund et al T2 T3 T2 T3 T2 T3 T2 T3 T2 T3 T2 T3 T2 T3 T2 …”

Ação comunicativa na gestão de um serviço privatizado de água e esgotos: uma avaliação em Cachoeiro de Itapemirim (ES)

“…A democracia deliberativa vem sendo reconhecida como processo útil para propósitos críticos, especialmente pela possibilidade de "iluminar deficiências nos arranjos deliberativos existentes" (Bohman, 2009:36), como conselhos gestores e audiências públicas e outros arranjos institucionais, revelando uma crescente preocupação com pesquisas relacionadas à prática deliberativa (Batista e Melo, 2011;Della Porta, 2005;Grönlund, Setäla e Herne, 2010;Fishkin et al, 2010;Neblo, 2005;Rist et al, 2007;Vizeu e Bin, 2008).…”