The Televised Deliberative Poll: An Experiment in Democracy

Abstract

The concept of the televised deliberative poll is outlined. Its first realization—in Britain by the television network Channel Four in May of 1994—is described. Ordinary polls model what the public is thinking even when it is disengaged or inattentive. The deliberative poll attempts to model what the public would think, if it were truly engaged by the issues. A national random sample is brought to a single place where its deliberations, in small group sessions and with competing experts and politicians, can be broadcast nationally and where it can arrive at considered judgments. The 1994 British experiment was held on the issue of crime. The sample was highly representative, both attitudinally and demographically, and its opinions changed dramatically. Implications for future experiments are discussed, particularly for the National Issues Convention, the January 1996 PBS experiment based on the same concept.

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References

1. See Anthony Downs , An Economic Theory of Democracy (New York: Harper & Row, 1957).

2. See Sam Popkin , The Reasoning Voter (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991).

3. The classic discussion is Philip E. Converse , “The Nature of Belief Systems in Mass Publics,” in Ideology and Discontent, ed. David E. Apter (New York: Free Press, 1964), p. 245.

4. George Gallup , “Public Opinion in a Democracy” (Stafford Little Lectures, Princeton University, 1938), p. 15.

For historical and theoretical background, see my Voice of the People (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1995).

6. V. O. Key, Jr. with Milton Cummings , The Responsible Electorate (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1966), p. 2.

7. See, for example, comments of Robert Worcester on the deliberative poll on the NBC Nightly News, 7 May 1994.

8. My collaborators Robert Luskin, Roger Jowell, and Rebecca Gray and I are at work on two systematic reports on the experiment.

9. For an excellent summary of the approach of the National Issues Forums in facilitating small group discussion of issues, see David Mathews , Politics for People: Finding a Responsible Public Voice (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994).

10.

10. “Channel 4 to Introduce Radical Polling Method,” Broadcast, 6 May 1994, p. 3.

11.

11. Since this article was written, I have served as executive director of the National Issues Convention, a deliberative poll with presidential candidates nationally televised on PBS. It was broadcast in January 1996. The sample was selected by the National Opinion Research Center, and the broadcasts were produced by MacNeil/Lehrer Productions.