John Gastil

Last updated

John Gastil (born 1967) currently holds a joint appointment as Professor of Communication Arts & Sciences and Professor of Political Science at Penn State University. He is known for his research on deliberative democracy and group decision making.

Contents

John Gastil
Born1967
TitleProfessor of Communication Arts & Sciences, Professor of Political Science
Academic work
InstitutionsPenn State University, The McCourtney Institute for Democracy
Main interests Citizens' Initiative Review, Deliberative democracy

Biography

John Gastil was born in San Diego and raised in a Quaker family. His experiences in Quaker meetings sparked his interest in how people work within groups to make decisions, reach a consensus at certain times, and defend their positions through reason and evidence. [1] Gastil earned a B.A. in political science from Swarthmore College in 1989 and an M.A. (1991) and Ph.D. (1994) in Communication Arts from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He previously taught at the University of Washington and served as Head of the Department of Communication Arts & Sciences and as Director of The McCourtney Institute for Democracy at Penn State University. [2] [ non-primary source needed ]

Research

Gastil’s early research culminated in his 1993 book Democracy in Small Groups. In it he explored the workings of group decision rules, the establishment and maintenance of democratic norms, and the emergence of deliberative practices. [3] [ non-primary source needed ]

Some of his later research examined the jury, one of the most important venues through which ordinary citizens can deliberate and make consequential decisions. Building on the insights of Alexis de Tocqueville and others, Gastil and his coauthors produced in The Jury and Democracy the first large-scale study of how jury service affects those who participate. Gastil shows the effects on jury members’ civic attitudes, views about legal institutions, opinions about deliberation, and subsequent participation in politics. [4] [ non-primary source needed ]The Jury and Democracy won the 2011 Ernest Bormann Research Award from the National Communication Association. [5]

Gastil is also widely credited for promoting deliberation among citizens during elections and in other political institutions. [6] In his book By Popular Demand, he proposed creating panels of citizens, chosen randomly to ensure a cross-section of society, to deliberate on ballot initiatives and referendums. [7] [ non-primary source needed ] In 2010 Oregon became the first state to implement this idea through its Citizens’ Initiative Review (CIR). [6] Oregon reports the results of these deliberations through the state’s official voter’s pamphlet. Similar policies have now been adopted by a handful of other states, and Gastil’s research on Oregon’s CIR has been cited repeatedly in both academic journals [8] and the news media. [9] [10] Gastil has testified before the legislatures of Oregon, Washington, and Massachusetts about these deliberative processes. [2] [ non-primary source needed ]

Selected publications

• Gastil, J., Knobloch, K. (2020). Hope for democracy: How citizens can bring reason back into politics. New York: Oxford University Press.

• Gastil, John, E. Pierre Deess, Philip J. Weiser, and Cindy Simmons (2010). The Jury and Democracy: How Jury Deliberation Promotes Civic Engagement and Political Participation. New York: Oxford University Press.

• Gastil, John (2000). By Popular Demand: Revitalizing Representative Democracy through Deliberative Elections. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

• Gastil, John (1993, 2nd. ed. 2014). Democracy in Small Groups: Participation, Decision Making, and Communication. Philadelphia: New Society Publishers.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Direct democracy</span> Form of democracy

Direct democracy or pure democracy is a form of democracy in which the electorate decides on policy initiatives without elected representatives as proxies. This differs from the majority of currently established democracies, which are representative democracies. The theory and practice of direct democracy and participation as its common characteristic was the core of work of many theorists, philosophers, politicians, and social critics, among whom the most important are Jean Jacques Rousseau, John Stuart Mill, and G.D.H. Cole.

Deliberative democracy or discursive democracy is a form of democracy in which deliberation is central to decision-making. Deliberative democracy seeks quality over quantity by limiting decision-makers to a smaller but more representative sample of the population that is given the time and resources to focus on one issue.

Participatory democracy, participant democracy or participative democracy is a form of government in which citizens participate individually and directly in political decisions and policies that affect their lives, rather than through elected representatives. Elements of direct and representative democracy are combined in this model.

The National Issues Forums (NIF) is a US-based non partisan, nationwide network of civic, educational, and other organizations and individuals whose common interest is to promote public deliberation in America. NIF sponsors public forums and training institutions for public deliberation." Everyday citizens get to deliberate on various issues through NIF forums. Some of the issues discussed include civil rights, education, energy, government, etc. "Think, Deliberate, Act" is the slogan on the NIF.

Anticipatory exclusion refers to a citizen's decision not to attend a discussion due to the anticipation of being excluded. The citizen would never take part in a discussion because they believe that their views and perspectives wouldn't be given equal time or consideration, when compared to dominant views. In other words, the fear of being excluded, discounted, or dismissed causes a person to decline an opportunity to attend a public event. Calling this "exclusion" implies that the individual's personal decision not to participate actually reflects a larger historical pattern of active exclusion toward similar individuals.

AmericaSpeaks was a Washington, D.C.-based non-governmental organization that operated from 1995 to 2014. Its mission was to engage citizens in discussing and influencing public decisions and serve as a counterweight to special interest groups. It introduced the concept of the "21st Century Town Meeting", a format that attempted to take the traditional New England town meeting to a larger scale through the use of modern technology. Widely cited as an example of deliberative democracy, its methodology relied on mini-publics, defined as "the randomized selection of citizens to discuss public matters in small groups", as well as large-group intervention (LGI) to influence organizational change. It applied the concept of expert publics, recognizing that members of the general public can develop knowledge and expertise through their own experience of an issue or problem. At the same time, the organization worked closely with policymakers to define the scope and choices to be discussed, arguing that the data collected would be directly relevant and more likely to influence outcomes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Public consultation</span> Process to get public input

Public consultation, public comment, or simply consultation, is a process by which members of the public are asked for input on public issues. This can occur in public meetings open to all in written form, as well as in deliberative groups. Surveys and deliberative groups can be conducted with self-selected citizens or with statistically representative samples of the population which enables the identification of majority opinion. Its main goals are to improve public involvement and influence, as well as the transparency and efficiency of government projects, laws, or regulations.

Radical democracy is a type of democracy that advocates the radical extension of equality and liberty. Radical democracy is concerned with a radical extension of equality and freedom, following the idea that democracy is an unfinished, inclusive, continuous and reflexive process.

Mediated deliberation is a form of deliberation that is achieved through the media which acts as a mediator between the mass public and elected officials. The communication professionals of the media relay information, values, and diverse points of view to the public in order for effective public deliberation to occur. Benjamin Page proposes mediated deliberation be a "division of labor" with the idea of using the media to deliver information between the elected officials and the public because modern problems make it impossible to rely on the elected officials to deliberate for the public. The role of the media is to encourage discussion amongst the citizens to keep them engaged with their elected officials.

In governance, sortition is the selection of public officials or jurors using a random representative sample.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Collaborative e-democracy</span> Political concept of an online, participatory policymaking process

Collaborative e-democracy refers to a hybrid democratic model combining elements of direct democracy, representative democracy, and e-democracy. This concept, first introduced at international academic conferences in 2009, offers a pathway for citizens to directly or indirectly engage in policymaking. Steven Brams and Peter Fishburn describe it as an "innovative way to engage citizens in the democratic process," that potentially makes government "more transparent, accountable, and responsive to the needs of the people."

Archon Fung, is the Winthrop Laflin McCormack Professor of Citizenship and Democracy at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and co-founder of the Transparency Policy Project. Fung served as an assistant professor of public policy at the Kennedy School from July 1999–June 2004, then as an associate professor of public policy at the Kennedy School from July 2004–October 2007, and finally as a professor of public policy from October 2007–March 2009 before being named as the Ford Foundation Chair of Democracy and Citizenship in March 2009. In 2015, he was elected to the Common Cause National Governing Board.

E2D International (E2D) was the political international of the Electronic Direct Democracy (E2D) Party movement. The E2D Manifesto described the basic political principles of E2D International member parties. Most of the member parties are defunct. The Swedish Direktdemokraterna remains as the last active party as of November 2020.

A citizens' assembly is a group of people selected by lottery from the general population to deliberate on important public questions so as to exert an influence. Other names and variations include citizens' jury, citizens' panel, people's panel, mini-publics,people's jury, policy jury, consensus conference and citizens' convention.

Online deliberation is a broad term used to describe many forms of non-institutional, institutional and experimental online discussions. The term also describes the emerging field of practice and research related to the design, implementation and study of deliberative processes that rely on the use of electronic information and communications technologies (ICT).

A deliberative referendum is a referendum that increases public deliberation through purposeful institutional design. The term "deliberative referendum" stems from deliberative democracy, which emphasises that "the legitimacy of decisions can be increased if...decisions are preceded by authentic deliberation." Deliberative design features can promote public deliberation prior to and during the referendum vote to increase its actual and perceived legitimacy. Deliberative referendums encourage open-minded and informed reasoning, rather than rigid "pre-formed opinions". "[A]fter deliberations, citizens routinely alter their preferences".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jane Suiter</span> Irish political scientist

Jane Suiter is an Irish political scientist, professor and director of Dublin City University's Institute for Future Media, Democracy, and Society ("FuJo") and research lead of Ireland's Constitutional Convention and the Citizens' Assembly. She is the co-author or co-editor of three academic books and one guide book, and over 40 journal articles. In December 2020, she was named "Researcher of the Year" by the Irish Research Council and in February 2021, she was promoted to the position of professor by DCU.

Participatory democracy "is founded on the direct action of citizens who exercise some power and decide issues affecting their lives". Participatory democracy refers to mechanisms through which citizens are involved in public decision-making processes, not as an alternative to representative democracy but as a complement to it.

Oral democracy is a talk-based form of government and political system in which citizens of a determined community have the opportunity to deliberate, through direct oral engagement and mass participation, in the civic and political matters of their community. Additionally, oral democracy represents a form of direct democracy, which has the purpose of empowering citizens by creating open spaces that promote an organized process of discussion, debate, and dialogue that aims to reach consensus and to impact policy decision-making. Political institutions based on this idea of direct democracy seek to decrease the possibilities of state capture from elites by holding them accountable, to encourage civic participation and collective action, and to improve the efficiency and adaptability of development interventions and public policy implementation.

A Citizens' Initiative Review (CIR) is a small, relatively representative panel that deliberates on a ballot initiative or referendum to be decided in an upcoming election in order to produce a useful summary for voters.

References

  1. ↑ John Gastil, "The Spirit and Practice of Deliberative Democracy" http://jgastil.la.psu.edu/pdfs/SpiritAndPractice.pdf
  2. 1 2 John Gastil's CV http://cas.la.psu.edu/people/jwg22/MyCV
  3. ↑ Gastil, John (1993, 2nd. ed. 2014). Democracy in Small Groups: Participation, Decision Making, and Communication.
  4. ↑ Gastil, John, E. Pierre Deess, Philip J. Weiser, and Cindy Simmons (2010). The Jury and Democracy: How Jury Deliberation Promotes Civil Engagement and Political Participation.
  5. ↑ "Group Communication Division". National Communication Association. 2016-10-17. Retrieved 2023-02-10.
  6. 1 2 Participedia, Oregon Citizens' Initiative Review http://participedia.net/en/methods/citizens-initiative-review Archived 2017-04-25 at the Wayback Machine
  7. ↑ Gastil, John (2000). By Popular Demand: Revitalizing Representative Democracy through Deliberative Elections.
  8. ↑ John Gastil's Google Scholar page https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&q=john+gastil&btnG=&as_sdt=1%2C48&as_sdtp=
  9. ↑ Koerth-Baker, Maggie (2012-08-15). "The Mind of a Flip-Flopper". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-02-10.
  10. ↑ Shira Schoenberg, "Citizens' Statement on Massachusetts Marijuana Ballot Question Was Effective, but Little Known" http://www.masslive.com/politics/index.ssf/2017/04/citizens_statement_on_marijuan.html
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.