By Joe Goldman, AmericaSpeaks
AmericaSpeaks is pleased to announce an independent evaluation that has been completed by three leading experts in public opinion and citizen deliberation about this summer’s national discussion on the federal budget.
The report, entitled, “The Difference that Deliberation Makes,” was released today by Professors Archon Fung of Harvard University, Taeku Lee of the University of California at Berkeley, and Kevin Esterling of the University of California-Riverside. It is available at www.usabudgetdiscussion.org and www.ash.harvard.edu.
As partisans in Washington line up to criticize recommendations from the President’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, the report shows that a diverse group of 3,500 Americans were able to find common ground about how to put the nation’s fiscal house in order during the unique nation-wide public deliberation. Among other things, the researchers saw significant shifts in participants’ policy preferences after taking part in the day-long discussion, especially among those who did not start the discussion with a strong opinion on the reform options.
According to the researchers, an important trend in this deliberation was moderation. Conservatives became more willing to support tax increases and reductions in defense spending and liberals became more willing to decrease spending on some public programs.
The June 26th National Town Meeting convened Americans in 57 forums across the country linked together by satellite and the Internet for a truly national discussion. Conservative Tea Party members worked in small groups with liberal MoveOn activists to evaluate options that would raise taxes and reduce government spending. Participants reported to the researchers that they felt the discussions were civil and respectful, despite the diversity of participants on this highly-polarized topic.
“Overall, the Our Budget, Our Economy event appears to have achieved its goals of bringing together a diverse group of ordinary Americans to engage each other in constructive discussion,” the researchers wrote. “Both liberals and conservatives appear to have moderated in their policy views regarding spending cuts and tax increases. And the organizers appear to have been quite successful in creating a forum for open and balanced discussion, based on the self-reports of participants as well as the extensive observation by our 19 on-site research assistants.”
Other notable statistics from the report include:
- 85 percent of the participants felt more informed about the challenges and options for cutting the federal budget deficit.
- 97 percent believed all participants listened to one another respectfully and courteously.
- 93 percent felt that other participants seemed to hear and understand their views.
- Only 19 percent said the meeting was not fair and unbiased.
- 93 percent said everyone had a real opportunity to speak and no one was shut out of the discussions.
- Only 24% said did not change their views as a result of the discussion.
- 81% said that decision makers should incorporate the conclusions of the town meeting into federal budget policy.
- 92% said they would participate in an event like this again.
- 87% said the event was fun and that politics should be like this more often.
National discussion participants evaluated 42 reform options that included tax increases and spending cuts. Nearly two-thirds of the groups taking part in the discussion were able to develop compromise packages that would reduce the deficit by $1 trillion or more.
Notably, those who described themselves as “somewhat conservative”, “somewhat liberal” and “moderate” expressed a strong willingness to support highly polarized reforms from across the political spectrum. For example, reductions in defense spending were supported by 89% of those who described themselves as “moderate” and 83% of those who described themselves as “somewhat conservative.” Similarly, reductions in health care spending were supported by 65% of “moderate” participants and 58% of “somewhat liberal” participants.
Like this? share it on:
join in on twitter
