John Gastil is associate professor of communication at the University of Washington. He has collaborated with members of the Deliberative Democracy Consortium (DDC), the National Coalition of Dialogue and Deliberation (NCDD), AmericaSpeaks, and the Kettering Foundation's National Issues Forums. He is the author of Democracy in Small Groups and By Popular Demand. Peter Levine is deputy director of the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) and a research scholar at the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy, both housed in the University of Maryland's School of Public Affairs. He is a cofounder of the Deliberative Democracy Consortium and author of The New Progressive Era: Toward a Fair and Deliberative Democracy.

• Tables and Figures xiPreface xiiiJohn Gastil, Peter LevineAbout the Editors xviiAbout the Contributors xixPART ONE: BACKGROUND 11 A Nation That (Sometimes) Likes to Talk: A Brief History of Public Deliberation in the United States 3John Gastil, William M. Keith2 What Can We Learn from the Practice of Deliberative Democracy? 20Mark Button, David Michael RyfePART TWO: DELIBERATION AND PUBLIC JUDGMENT 353 National Issues Forums: A Network of Communities Promoting Public Deliberation 37Keith Melville, Taylor L. Willingham, John R. Dedrick4 Electoral Deliberation and Public Journalism 59Michelle Charles, Harris Sokoloff, Chris Satullo5 Deliberative Polling*: From Experiment to Community Resource 68James Fishkin, Cynthia Farrar6 Consensus Conferences and Planning Cells: Lay Citizen Deliberations: 80Carolyn M. Hendriks7 Citizens Juries: Creating a Trustworthy Voice of the People 111Ned Crosby, Doug Nethercut8 Adapting and Combining Deliberative Designs: Juries, Polls, and Forums 120Lyn Carson, Janette Hartz-KarpPART THREE: DELIBERATIVE GOVERNANCE 1399 Bringing the Public and the Government Together Through On-Line Dialogues 141Patricia A. Bonner, Robert Carlitz, Rosemary Gunn, Laurie E. Maak, Charles A. Ratliff10 A Town Meeting for the Twenty-First Century 154Carolyn J. Lukensmeyer, Joe Goldman, Steven Brigham11 Collaborative Learning and the Public's Stewardship of Its Forests 164Antony S. Cheng, Janet D. Fiero12 Participation and Public Policies in Brazil 174Vera Schattan P. Coelho, Barbara Pozzoni, Mariana Cifuentes Montoya13 Deliberative City Planning on the Philadelphia Waterfront 185Harris Sokoloff, Harris M. Steinberg, Steven N. PyserPART FOUR: COMMUNITIES AND DELIBERATIVE CULTURE 19714 Study Circles: Local Deliberation as the Cornerstone of Deliberative Democracy 199Patrick L. Scully, Martha L. McCoy15 e-thePeople.org: Large-Scale, Ongoing Deliberation 213G. Michael Weiksner16 Learning Democracy Centers: Where the Public Works 228Carole J. Schwinn, John T. Kesler, David R. Schwinn17 Disagreement and Consensus: The Importance of Dynamic Updating in Public Deliberation 237Christopher F. Karpowitz, Jane Mansbridge18 Growing Governance Deliberatively: Lessons and Inspiration from Hampton, Virginia 254William R. Potapchuk, Cindy Carlson, Joan KennedyPART FIVE: CONCLUSION 26919 Future Directions for Public Deliberation 271Peter Levine, Archon Fung, John GastilRecommended Reading 289Index 301