Deliberative Polling® is a unique form of political consultation which combines public opinion research and deliberation to identify how public opinion on an issue might appear if citizens were better informed.
Deliberative Polling® is a unique form of political consultation that combines techniques of public opinion research and public deliberation to construct hypothetical representations of what public opinion on a particular issue might look like if citizens were given a chance to become more informed. As a polling method, the Deliberative Poll seeks to account for the preferences and opinions of citizens both before and after they have had an opportunity to arrive at considered judgements based on information and exposure to the views of fellow citizens.[1] The technique was first developed by Professor James Fishkin of Stanford University in 1988, and has been adopted by local and regional governments across the world – including Canada, the United States, Greece, Italy, Bulgaria, Hungary, the United Kingdom, Brazil and China.[2] In these diverse settings, it has been used as a more accurate means of polling the public, as a method of developing citizen preferences on difficult issues, as a mode of selecting candidates to run in competitive elections, and as a policy tool to direct political officials in public planning efforts.