United States
The United States has a long history of democratic innovation and turmoil. From the colonial New England town hall meetings, through the voluntary associations documented and discussed by Tocqueville in Democracy in America and the populist movement of the late 19th century examined by Lawrence Goodwyn in Democratic Promise, to the upheavals of the mid-20th century – characterized by the Port Huron Statement of the Students for a Democratic Society – the challenge to continually reaffirm and reinvent democracy has run through U.S. history. It comes as no surprise then that in the age of governance dialogue the United States continues to be a major innovator.
Some of the most prominent initiatives in deliberative democracy have originated in the U.S., including the technologically sophisticated “21st Century Town Meeting,” developed by AmericaSpeaks; the deliberative poll, developed by the Center for Deliberative Polling at the University of Texas at Austin; citizen juries, developed by the Jefferson Center; and the National Issues Forums, developed by the institute of the same name. All of these efforts have served to explore the horizons of deliberative democratic processes.
The U.S. exploration of online e-rulemaking, with the development of increasingly sophisticated docket rooms and notice and comment processes, is making the U.S. a pioneer in non-synchronous Internet-based deliberation and input accountability processes. Additionally, there are a host of local and national endeavours at creating governance dialogue, from stakeholder ecosystem governance under the U.S. Endangered Species Act to Chicago’s neighbourhood councils.
Recent scholarship that has examined the American experience:
Archon Fung, "Recipes for public spheres: Eight institutional design choices and their consequences," Journal of Political Philosophy, 11(3), 2003.
Archon Fung and Erik Olin Wright, “Deepening democracy: Innovations in empowered participatory governance,” Politics and Society, 29(1), March 2001.
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