The Center for Deliberative Democracy, housed in the Department of Communication at Stanford University, is devoted to research about democracy and public opinion obtained through Deliberative Polling®.

Latest News and Events

WEBINAR

America in One Room Climate and Energy: Discussion Results from a National Deliberative Poll. 

VIEW THE WEBINAR HERE AND THE SUPPLEMENTAL VIDEO HERE.

PROJECT

America in One Room: Climate and Energy

In September 2021, a new sample of America in One Room was convened to deliberate about policy options for climate and energy. These public deliberations focused on possible options to help achieve Net Zero (the point at which we would no longer be adding to the total of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere).

This is a Helena project, with a national sample of 962 people and a comparably sized control group recruited by NORC at the University of Chicago. Partners included California Forward, the Greater Houston Partnership, the Center for Houston’s Future and the In This Together. Results available before the Glasgow Summit (the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow, 31 October, 2021). Participants deliberated online using the Stanford Platform for Online Deliberation.

RESULTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND DETAILED RESULTS ARE FOUND HERE.

PRESS

AMERICA IN ONE ROOM

America in One Room—Election Follow-Up

The participants in the Deliberative Poll in Dallas and the control group were surveyed in a recent follow-up conducted by NORC. 463 of the original deliberators and 710 of the original control group responded. They were asked about how much they followed the campaign, what they thought of the government’s handling of the Covid crisis and who they planned to vote for. Results for both the deliberators and the control group are presented here.

Play about America in One Room

DID YOU KNOW:  America In One Room is based on a real-life convention that took place in
September of 2019 in Dallas, Texas, hosted by Stanford’s Center for Deliberative Democracy and
Helena, a global nonpartisan organization dedicated to identifying and implementing solutions
for problems. The event brought together over 500 people of all ages, ethnicities, genders, and
identities from across the country to talk about five topics: the economy, immigration, health
care, foreign policy, and the environment. Before their arrival, each participant completed an
in-depth questionnaire about their views on these five areas. Each day, attendees took part
in small breakout sessions led by a moderator, where they discussed these issues. Everyone’s
viewpoints were documented so they could give the event organizers a clearer, more balanced
understanding of America’s political landscape according to voters. After the convention was
over, the participants had to take the original questionnaire one last time. The survey found that
95% of participants had “learned a lot about people very different from me” and 98.2% reported
that the experience was “valuable.”

Webinar for America in One

Voices of America in One Room

America in One Room is the historic gathering of American voters from across ages, races, genders, and the political spectrum- led by Stanford’s Center for Deliberative Democracy.  Today, Stanford student and CDD assistant Aditi Narayanan interviews Taren Lynn, a participant in this – as they discuss the feeling of meeting with people from across the country and how disagreements and tensions can be resolved peacefully.  This interview was edited by another Stanford freshman, Cameron Lange.

After America in One Room

Design of the New School on Planetary Sustainability

Courses on Deliberative Democracy

Voices of Shaping Our Future

Imagine a world where forming policy was less about cutting through red tape, and more about listening to people for building a better tomorrow. Two of the most widely discussed social issues facing our society today center around our CLIMATE and ECONOMIC INEQUALITY. While many people are divided on these issues, and there are a variety of ideas involving how they should be handled, we were curious to know what the younger generation thought about these topics.

In May 2021, more than 600 young people from across the country were brought together online to discuss their insights on these issues in small groups, listen to panel experts answer their questions, and interact with each other regardless of whether or not they agreed on the topics being discussed. In this podcast, we speak with some of those participants and get their thoughts on the conversations they had during the 2021 “Shaping Our Future” event.

Recent Publications

What is Deliberative Polling®?
Deliberative Polling® Timeline
Policy Impacts of Deliberative Polling®
Deliberative Polling® World Map