The Australian Citizens' Parliament: forging shared identity through public deliberation

摘要: Active citizen participation is increasingly being recognized as essential to effective public policymaking. A key challenge for administrators how effectively engage constituents' diverse viewpoints in sound deliberation that will likely result coherent, agreed judgments. This paper investigates one such process, Australia's first Citizens' Parliament, which brought together 150 randomly sampled Australian citizens charged with the task of formulating concrete policy proposals be considered by Federal government. One unexpected outcome this initiative, especially given ambivalence about nationalism, was emergence a shared identity among participants appeared bridge cultural and geographical divides. We explore linkages between salient elements deliberative sense ‘being Australian’, final list recommendations indicated an understanding commitment ‘common good’. If acknowledged development coherent voice, then further examination these critical efficacy future deliberations. Moreover, heterogeneous nature electorate challenges inherent country's federal governance structure, findings have significant implications policymakers similar constituencies, notably EU USA. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.