Connecting Micro-Deliberation to Electoral Decision Making: Institutionalizing the Oregon Citizens' Initiative Review

Book Chapter in Anna Przybylska (Ed.), Deliberation and democracy: Innovative processes and institutions. New York: Peter Lang, Forthcoming

22 Pages Posted: 31 Mar 2016

See all articles by John Gastil

John Gastil

Pennsylvania State University

Katherine Knobloch

Colorado State University, Fort Collins

Tyrone Reitman

Independent

Date Written: 2015

Abstract

The theory, practice, and study of public deliberation has undergone expansive growth over the past two decades, and it has given rise to — or theoretically framed — several novel opportunities for community discussion and empowered citizen decision making (Gastil and Levine 2005; Goodin and Dryzek 2006; Nabatchi et al. 2012)1. Few of these processes, however, have been institutionalized as formal parts of governing systems and granted official decision-making power or other forms of direct influence. In other words, most such processes are typically disconnected from the very decisions they seek to influence. The Oregon Citizens’ Initiative Review (CIR) is one deliberative event that has been granted governmental legitimacy as a means of public voice, if not authoritative decision making. The CIR was developed to improve the quality of information available to voters regarding statewide initiatives by connecting small-scale deliberation with electoral decision making. Briefly, CIR organizers convened representative groups of twenty-four registered Oregon voters for five days to study and deliberate on statewide initiatives. At the end of their deliberations, each panel of citizens wrote a page of analysis about their assigned initiative for the official Oregon State Voters’ Pamphlet,which the Secretary of State delivered along with mail-in ballots to every registered voter in the state. As many as eighty percent of voters report using the Voters’ Pamphlet when making voting decisions (Gastil and Knobloch 2010). Such widespread use allows the Citizens’ Statements produced by the CIR to play a prominent role in voter education and subsequently influence the outcome of binding governmental decisions.

Keywords: CIR, citizen initiative review, institutionalizing democratic initiatives, democratic deliberation, deliberative theory, electoral decision making, voting behavior

Suggested Citation

Gastil, John and Knobloch, Katherine and Reitman, Tyrone, Connecting Micro-Deliberation to Electoral Decision Making: Institutionalizing the Oregon Citizens' Initiative Review (2015). Book Chapter in Anna Przybylska (Ed.), Deliberation and democracy: Innovative processes and institutions. New York: Peter Lang, Forthcoming , Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2756712

John Gastil (Contact Author)

Pennsylvania State University ( email )

University Park, PA 16802
United States

Katherine Knobloch

Colorado State University, Fort Collins ( email )

Fort Collins, CO 80523-1771
United States

Tyrone Reitman

Independent ( email )

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