Under the slogan “Future Needs Solidarity. Diversity Creates Chances.”, the BürgerForum 2011 did not address any specific problem or problems; it rather allowed participating citizens to identify problems as well as solutions they deem most pressing for German society. The purpose behind this approach is three-fold. Firstly, initiators hoped to inspire citizens to be more excited about politics and democracy and instill a sense of community within participants.
Anmerkung: Dies ist die deutsche Übersetzung einer englischen Fallstudie, die von Patrizia Nanz mit Hilfe von Anna Wohlfarth am 04.11.2009 verfasst wurde. Die Originalversion ist abrufbar unter http://participedia.net/cases/b-rgerforum-europa.
The objective of the Citizens' Jury on Energy Economics and Security for New South Wales for the Public Accounts Committee of the NSW Parliament was to agree on an order of preference, barriers to adoption (including financial aspects and public perception issues) and recommended course of action with regard to alternative forms of energy generation in NSW. In order to do that, first it was the jury's role to address the problems and barriers of implementing these alternative means of energy.
Various federal departments and agencies of Canada funded the ChoiceWork Dialogue to learn more about their citizens’ expectations of governments, the private sector, and their communities. The goals that Canadian societies seek to achieve are detailed in a “social contract.” When leaders planned for post-war policies after World War II, a primary result was the birth of a welfare state. By the 1970s, government revenue was unable to sustain the dependent system. The outcome was major changes to trade and economic policy.
Given that Canada has 22 commercial nuclear reactors, which they rely on to produce 13% of national energy, the issue of nuclear waste is a serious one that must be addressed as soon as possible. The question of how Canada should handle nuclear waste disposal was put to the citizens in 2005.
This case study features the ten 2007/2008 Citizen Conferences, each consisting of 8 to 10 New Mexican Adult Citizens and lasting 9 hours. This series of deliberative events was convened by the New Mexico Department of Transportation (NMDOT) and the University of New Mexico's Institute for Public Policy (IPP) to gather public feedback, so that the State could best meet the transportation needs of its citizens.
Citizen Conferences allow for citizens to deliberate and provide policy recommendations for a government entity. The government entity can then use these recommendations to better meet the needs of its citizens.
Participants
The participants in citizen conferences are selected randomly to represent the diverse sets of opinions and demographics of a region (e.g. a State). These participants are usually ordinary citizens, not stakeholders or professional lobbyists.
In 2012, the City of Canada Bay Council proposed an innovative method of deliberative democracy to obtain the advice of citizens in making decisions for the range and quality of council services for the period 2014-18. With this in mind, the Canada Bay Council partnered with groups such as Straight Talk and newDemocracy to create a panel of 36 randomly citizens. This group worked in parallel to a randomly selected group of council staff.
