John Gastil

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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]

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]

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] The Jury and Democracy won the 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] In 2010 Oregon became the first state to implement this idea through its Citizens’ Initiative Review (CIR). [8] 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 and the news media. [9] [10] [11] Gastil has testified before the legislatures of Oregon, Washington, and Massachusetts about these deliberative processes. [12]

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

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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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deliberation</span> Process of thoughtfully weighing options, usually prior to voting

Deliberation is a process of thoughtfully weighing options, usually prior to voting. Deliberation emphasizes the use of logic and reason as opposed to power-struggle, creativity, or dialogue. Group decisions are generally made after deliberation through a vote or consensus of those involved.

Deliberative democracy or discursive democracy is a form of democracy in which deliberation is central to decision-making. It often adopts elements of both consensus decision-making and majority rule. Deliberative democracy differs from traditional democratic theory in that authentic deliberation, not mere voting, is the primary source of legitimacy for the law. Deliberative democracy is closely related to consultative democracy, in which public consultation with citizens is central to democratic processes.

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.

A deliberative opinion poll, sometimes called a deliberative poll, is a form of opinion poll that incorporates the principles of deliberative democracy. Professor James S. Fishkin of Stanford University first described the concept in 1988. The typical deliberative opinion poll takes a random, representative sample of citizens and engages them in deliberation on current issues or proposed policy changes through small-group discussions and conversations with competing experts to create more informed and reflective public opinion. A typical polling utilizes participants drawn from a random and representative sample to engage in small-group deliberations to create more informed and reflective public opinion. Deliberative polls have been tested around the world, including in the European Union, the United States, China, and Australia.

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-profit organization from 1995-2014 whose mission was to "engage citizens in the public decisions that impact their lives." AmericaSpeaks' work is focused on trying to create opportunities for citizens to impact decisions and to encourage public officials to make informed, lasting decisions. AmericaSpeaks has developed and facilitated deliberative methods such as the 21st Century Town Hall Meeting, which enables facilitated discussion for 500 to 5,000 participants. Carolyn Lukensmeyer is the President and Founder of AmericaSpeaks. Its partners have included regional planning groups, local, state, and national government bodies, national and international organizations. Issues have ranged from Social Security reform, the redevelopment of ground zero in New York City and rebuilding New Orleans.

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In governance, sortition is the selection of public officials or jurors using a random representative sample. This minimizes factionalism, since those selected to serve can prioritize studying the policy decisions in front of them instead of campaigning. In ancient Athenian democracy, sortition was the traditional and primary method for appointing political officials, and its use was regarded as a principal characteristic of democracy.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Citizens' assembly</span> Randomly-selected people to advise or rule on public issues

A citizens' assembly is a randomly-selected group of people who deliberate on important public questions. It is also known as citizens' jury, citizens' panel, people's panel, people's jury, policy jury, citizens' initiative review, 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).

Tali Mendelberg is the John Work Garrett Professor in Politics at Princeton University, and winner of the American Political Science Association (APSA), 2002 Woodrow Wilson Foundation Book Award for her book, The Race Card: Campaign Strategy, Implicit Messages, and the Norm of Equality.

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.

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A Citizens' Initiative Review (CIR) is a panel that deliberates on a ballot initiative or referendum to be decided in an upcoming election. The panelists are chosen through means such as random sampling and stratified sampling to be demographically representative. This often involves paying for the time and travel of the roughly two dozen participants. The state of Oregon created the first permanent Citizens' Initiative Review in 2010, while Colorado, Arizona, Massachusetts, and Sion (Switzerland) have conducted pilots.

References

  1. ↑ John Gastil, "The Spirit and Practice of Deliberative Democracy" http://jgastil.la.psu.edu/pdfs/SpiritAndPractice.pdf
  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. ↑ 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. ↑ Participedia, Oregon Citizens' Initiative Review http://participedia.net/en/methods/citizens-initiative-review Archived 2017-04-25 at the Wayback Machine
  9. ↑ John Gastil's Google Scholar page https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&q=john+gastil&btnG=&as_sdt=1%2C48&as_sdtp=
  10. ↑ Koerth-Baker, Maggie (2012-08-15). "The Mind of a Flip-Flopper". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-02-10.
  11. ↑ 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
  12. ↑ John Gastil's CV http://cas.la.psu.edu/people/jwg22/MyCV
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