DeliberationWorks: A Deliberation System for Developing Capacities in Civic Organizing

They define deliberation as a democratic process in which people learn about different actions and discuss which actions to take toward a collective goal. While this at first glance felt limited, they truly are concerned about whether participants come away with taking political action post-deliberation.

Using the action-oriented definition above, they see deliberation as the ingredient for people to develop their capacity for organizing—independently working with others on complex and challenging collective actions beyond mobilization.

DeliberationWorks does the following:

• Present potential activists with background information on collective actions and self-reflective deliberation questions
• Facilitates group discussion with experienced organizers (Human)
• Prompts activists to fill out action plans

They used DeliberationWorks to examine organizing to increase voter turnout in the 2020 presidential election and runoff election in Georgia.

They found DeliberationWorks effectively:

• Increased potential activists’ knowledge and motivation, identify interests, and helped them complete action plans
• But also found that potential activists experienced four types of engagement during deliberation that complicates how deliberation affects action taking and future engagement with organizing:
  1. Hesitant Newcomer journey
     • Often those who have no prior experience, unsure if org’s goals aligned with their interests, and expressed reservations. They chose and planned an action but ultimately did not complete it. Deliberation only increased awareness.
  2. Attempt to Act journey
     • Strong aligned personal interests and highly value staying engaged, but faced logistical reservations. But they attempted to take action, ultimately not succeeding in follow-through.
  3. Experienced Activist journey
     • Has prior knowledge, and highly motivated to contribute.
     • They completed an action they already had experience doing. Deliberation acted more like a mobilizing intervention.
  4. Capacity Stretcher journey
     • Most ideal. Strong pre-existing social connection with organizer. They interestingly raised questions and reservations, but the strong connection and reminders from the organizer were crucial factors in follow-through.
     • So what really made the ideal case exist is things outside of the deliberation.