Comprehensive Dialogue Among Civilizations

CDAC was founded in 2003 by Dr. Vladimir F. Petrovsky, former UN Under Secretary-General and Director-General of the UN Office in Geneva (1992 -2002) as a follow up to the United Nations International Year for the Dialogue of Civilizations in 2001. The current world situation more than ever demands the development and strengthening of dialogue. CDAC aims to develop, cultivate and promote the spirit and culture of dialogue with the ultimate goal of creating tools and instruments to address the current global issues and challenges in a constructive, evolutionary and democratic way.

Resource Link: http://www.comprehensivedialogue.org

Creating a Culture of Collaboration: The International Association of Facilitators Handbook

Sandy Schuman. Jossey-Bass, 2006.

Collaboration is often viewed as a one-time or project-oriented activity. An increasing challenge is to help organizations incorporate collaborative values and practices in their everyday ways of working. In Creating a Culture of Collaboration, an international group of practitioners and researchers ?– from Australia, Belgium, Canada, Chile, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, and the United States ?– provide proven approaches to creating a culture of collaboration within and among groups, organizations, communities, and societies.

Resource Link: http://www.josseybass.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0787981168.html

D&D Success Stories

Compiled by the National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation (NCDD), 2005.

Below are dozens of links to dialogue and deliberation success stories and case studies that are available online. Approaches covered include Deliberative Polling, Citizens Juries, Future Search, National Issues Forums, Jewish-Palestinian Dialogue, AmericaSpeaks, Study Circles, the Public Conversations Project, and Wisdom Councils. NCDD has been compiling these resources for the D&D community for several years, but we could really use your help keeping this page updated. Email us at [email protected] with your additions and changes.

Deepening Democracy: Institutional Innovations in Empowered Participatory Governance

Archon Fung and Erik Olin Wright. Verso Press, 2003.

This book presents case studies which demonstrate how people are inventing new political forms that realize the deeper democratic ideal of government of, by and for the people. The four contemporary cases explore the participatory budgeting process in Porto Alegre; decentralized school councils and community policing groups in Chicago; stakeholder planning in environmental protection and habitat management; and new participatory governance structures in Kerala, India.

Resource Link: http://www.archonfung.net

Deliberation Day

Bruce Ackerman and James Fishkin. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, USA, 2004.

Two leading political thinkers offer an audacious proposal to energize the electoral process. Bruce Ackerman and James Fishkin argue that Americans can revitalize their democracy and break the cycle of cynical media manipulation that is crippling public life. They propose a new national holiday--Deliberation Day--for each presidential election year. On this day people throughout the country will meet in public spaces and engage in structured debates about issues that divide the candidates in the upcoming presidential election.

Resource Link: http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=0300109644

Deliberation in Movement: Why and How to Study Deliberative Democracy and Social Movements

Donatella della Porta.

This paper explores the potential and actual relations between deliberative democracy and social movements. In the first part of the paper, the author focuses on why deliberative democracy is (normatively) important for social movements, and especially for the global movements of today, and, vice versa, why movements are important actors for deliberative processes.

Resource Link: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/ap/journal/v40/n3/pdf/5500116a.pdf

Deliberation in the Balance: A Cautionary Note on the Promise of Deliberative Democracy

Michael Briand. National Civic Review, Winter 2005, 2005.

Though the case for deliberation is compelling, in both theory and practice it faces substantial impediments. The success of the campaign to afford deliberation a larger role in public discussion of policy issues is by no means guaranteed. In this 7-page essay, Briand argues that the fate of deliberative democracy is hanging in the balance.

Resource Link: http://www.ncl.org/publications/ncr/94-4/Briand.pdf

Deliberative Democracy eBulletin

This monthly eBulletin from the Deliberative Democracy Consortium features updates from the deliberative democracy community.

Resource Link: http://www.deliberative-democracy.net

Deliberative Democracy in America

Ethan Leib. Pennsylvania State University Press, 2004.

This book offers a blueprint for a fourth branch of government as a way of giving the people a voice of their own. While drawing on the rich theoretical literature about deliberative democracy, Leib concentrates on designing an institutional scheme for embedding deliberation in the practice of American democratic government.

Deliberative Democracy Meets Dispute Resolution (DVD): Reflections and Insights from the 2005 Workshop on Deliberative Democracy and Dispute Resolution

Carri Hulet (producer), under the supervision of Lawrence Susskind. Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, 2006.

The Workshop on Deliberative Democracy and Dispute Resolution was a two-day conference held in June 2005 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The event brought together 30 individuals who share a common interest in civic engagement, but represent two distinct fields that approach the project very differently. One group included public dispute resolution professionals; the other, political theorists and innovative practitioners of deliberative democracy. This 2.5-hour DVD attempts to capture the most interesting moments of dialogue from this workshop in order to illustrate the overlaps and divisions of opinion both between and within the respective fields.

Resource Link: http://www.pon.org/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=394

Deliberative Dialogue to Expand Civic Engagement: What Kind of Talk Does Democracy Need?

Martha McCoy and Pat Scully, Study Circles Resource Center. National Civic Review, vol. 91, no. 2, pp. 117-135, 2002.

Martha McCoy and Pat Scully of the Study Circles Resource Center wrote this excellent article that distinguishes deliberation from dialogue and discusses the merits of ?“the marriage of deliberation and dialogue.?” Although the article focuses on the Study Circles process, it is a great introduction to public engagement processes and their principles. This is a very readable 19-page article that we highly recommend you take the time to read.

Resource Link: http://www.thataway.org/exchange/files/docs/DD_Expand.pdf

Democracy and Deliberation: New Directions for Democratic Reform

James S. Fishkin, Center for Deliberative Democracy. Yale University Press, 1997.

Fishkin makes an important proposal to reform the U.S. presidential nomination process. He supports the proposal with a concise, intelligent discussion of democratic theory, emphasizing the importance of genuine deliberation versus transient, media-generated public opinion. The book centers on the idea of a National Issues Convention - a televised caucus in which a representative sample of voters meet face-to-face with presidential contenders in order to reflect and vote on the issues and the candidates.

Resource Link: http://cdd.stanford.edu/

Democracy as Discussion: Civic Education and the American Forum Movement

William M. Keith, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Lexington Books, 2007.

As Americans worry ever more about the effects of media on the quality of public deliberation, they have developed a renewed interest in public discussion, especially face-to-face public discussion. Over a century ago, public forums - organized and widespread - provided a place where citizens could discuss the political issues of the day, and they became a means of adult civic education. In this 378-page book, Keith documents the college course developed by the new field of Speech to teach the skills of discussion, as well as the forum movement, which culminated in the Federal Forum Project.

Democratic Dialogue: A Handbook for Practitioners

Bettye Pruitt and Philip Thomas. The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA), the Organization of American States (OAS), the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), 2007.

This 242-page handbook is a joint effort of CIDA, International IDEA, OAS and UNDP, receiving valuable input from a wider network of organizations (including NCDD). This handbook is the result of a joint initiative to provide decision-makers and practitioners with a practical guide on how to design, facilitate and implement dialogue processes. It combines conceptual and practical knowledge, while providing an overview of relevant tools and experiences. NCDD highly recommends this handbook.

Resource Link: http://www.democraticdialoguenetwork.org/documents/view.pl?s=13;ss=;t=;f_id=789

Diagnosing Situations and Making Distinctions: Deciding What Dialogue, Deliberation or Collaborative Action Process Is Most Appropriate

Jan Elliott, Barnett Pearce and Harold Saunders. Fielding Graduate University, 2005.

There are many different approaches and technologies available for engagement. While there are some commonalities in these approaches, there are differences and they serve different purposes, again depending on the context. And there are new approaches and variations on existing approaches developing each year. Some have described what is happening in this field as a new social movement. In this environment of experimentation and exploration, how do we decide what approach is best suited for our purposes and the context? This short document explores this question from the perspective of different approaches and practitioners.

Resource Link: http://www.thataway.org/exchange/files/docs/Elliott_Diagnostic_Questions.doc

Dialogue and Deliberation Spectrum

Tom Atlee.

In this piece, begun on the NCDD wiki, Tom Atlee explores what a spectrum of public dialogue and deliberation might look like, from D&D that is unconnected to governance to "Citizen dialogue and deliberation with a coherent outcome that plugs into policy-making and decision-making where the citizens are selected to reflect the diversity of the community and the whole process is officially institutionalized and empowered such that it drives policy-making."

Digital Dialogues Interim Report

This important report outlines the Hansard Society's independent investigation into the use of online technologies to promote dialogue between central government in the U.K. and the public. Digital Dialogues presents overviews, data and guidance built around case studies. It has been written principally for government but it is also worthwhile reading for academics, journalists, practitioners and, of course, citizens. This is the interim report from the Digital Dialogues initiative. In March 2007 we will begin our end of initiative report and will make our recommendations the following May.

Resource Link: http://www.digitaldialogues.org.uk

Earth Intelligence Network

The purpose of the Earth Intelligence Network (EIN) is to serve as the supporting foundation for a much larger public interest network. EIN will provide public intelligence support to: 1) Serious Games focusing on the Ten Threats, Twelve Policies, and Ten Players; 2) Policy summits, dialogues and think tanks, inclusive of the Transpartisan Policy Institute of Reuniting America; and 3) Budgets online and off, seeking to reconcile actual local, state, and national budgets with reality and our future needs.

Resource Link: http://www.earth-intelligence.net

Fielding Graduate Institute - Dialogue, Deliberation and Public Engagement Certificate Program

In 2004, Fielding Graduate Institute, in collaboration with The International Institute for Sustained Dialogue (IISD) and the Kettering Foundation, launched this unique 16-week graduate level Certificate Program. The program strives for the development of "virtuosity" in our practice of dialogue and deliberation. "Virtuosity is what results when people follow their passions to know something well and to perform skillfully. It combines at least three things: (a) a 'passion' for what you are doing; (b) an ability to make [clear] distinctions and (c) the ability to engage in skilled performance.?” We have designed the course to enhance participants?’ abilities to engage in skilled performance.

Resource Link: http://www.fielding.edu/hod/ce/dialog/index.html

Generative Dialogue Project

The Generative Dialogue Project emerged in late 2003 as part of the Global Leadership Initiative, a broad effort to address the need for more effective approaches to global problem solving. From the outset, our intention for the GDP has been to organize a community of experienced dialogue practitioners as a peer learning group to work together to advance the state of the art of dialogic problem solving and to promote the use of the most effective processes in the global arena.

Resource Link: http://www.generativedialogue.org