Advancing The Field of Deliberative Democracy
AmericaSpeaks is dedicated to advancing citizen deliberation and aims to one day create an infrastructure in the United States that deeply incorporates citizens into the decision-making process. The Democracy Lab for Innovation and Research is AmericaSpeaks’ think tank on deliberative democracy and citizen engagement. The Democracy Lab develops methods to advance and sustain citizen engagement in the public policy process. AmericaSpeaks formed the Democracy Lab in order to: Improve democratic processes and institutions by creating a new governance mechanism that will regularly convene diverse groups of Americans on key policy questions and incorporate citizen voices into policy making; Enhance and improve AmericaSpeaks’ approach to citizen engagement, such as developing new models for sustaining citizen participation and turning initial participation in deliberation into long-term citizen engagement and action; Evaluate the impact of AmericaSpeaks’ citizen engagement initiatives; Strengthen the deliberative democracy field by disseminating knowledge gained by AmericaSpeaks through its projects and research. AmericaSpeaks routinely brings together leading scholars and practitioners from the field of deliberative democracy to develop insights into and solutions for key questions in the field of citizen engagement.
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