Coase-Sandor Working Paper Series in Law and Economics
Publication Date
2006
Publication Title
Law & Economics Working Papers
Abstract
What are the effects of deliberation about political issues? This essay reports the results of a kind of Deliberation Day, involving sixty-three citizens in Colorado. Groups from Boulder, a predominantly liberal city, met and discussed global warming, affirmative action, and civil unions for same-sex couples; groups from Colorado Springs, a predominately conservative city, met to discuss the same issues. The major effect of deliberation was to make group members more extreme than they were when they started to talk. Liberals became more liberal on all three issues; conservatives became more conservative. As a result, the division between the citizens of Boulder and the citizens of Colorado Springs were significantly increased as a result of intragroup deliberation. Deliberation also increased consensus, and dampened diversity, within the groups. Implications are explored for the uses and structure of deliberation in general.
Number
298
Recommended Citation
Cass R. Sunstein, David Schkade & Reid Hastie, "What Happened on Deliberation Day?" (John M. Olin Program in Law and Economics Working Paper No. 298, 2006).
Additional Information
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