A Quasi-Experimental Comparison of Face-to-Face and Internet Delivery in Citizens' Consensus Conferences

North Carolina State University, Raleigh NC

Investigators

Abstract

The competence of citizens to participate fully in democratic governance remains a controversial issue in political theory, particularly with regard to policy issues involving sci-ence and technology. In this context, two promising new approaches have emerged to foster citi-zen participation and engagement: the citizen's "consensus conference," originally developed in Denmark, and Internet-based public deliberation. Because of their relatively short histories, however, little research has been conducted on either deliberative mode. To refine and promote ways to increase citizen participation in the formation of science and technology policy, an interdisciplinary team of four faculty working in the rhetoric of science and technology, small group communication, and political science will conduct two consensus conferences on a scientifically and/or technically complex policy issue of concern to the citizens of North Carolina. In keeping with the Danish model, conferences will include demographically diverse panels of 15 citizens each who meet one weekend per month for three months to deliberate and ultimately generate recommendations concerning a current policy is-sue. Citizen panelists will receive information about that issue from a range of content-area ex-perts, experts on social implications of science and technology, and representatives of special interest groups. However, the panelist group itself will be responsible for forming policy rec-ommendations. These recommendations will then be reported to the media and relevant policy-making bodies in an initial press event and through wide dissemination of a final report. Using a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods, the team will investigate four compo-nents of successful consensual deliberation - learning and reasoning (cognitive components) and trust and confidence (affective components) - in face-to-face and Internet settings. The team will seek to determine first how these four components characterize the tradi-tional face-to-face conference and then track how they might change in a conference held strictly over the Internet. In so doing, project investigators will expand the Danish consensus conference model by beginning to examine the comparative effective-ness of the Internet as a deliberative tool. This new medium will be used both as a way to ex-plore improving the cost-effectiveness and wider adoptability of the Danish model in the U.S., as well as a counterpoint against which to compare the relative roles of the cognitive and affective components of successful consensus formation. Project results will be disseminated to a wide variety of audiences to 1) promote the practice of public consensual deliberation; 2) ad-vance basic research; and 3) inform the public about these processes' implications for their po-tential role in policy deliberation and formation.