IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 5 ENGLISH | Page 72

In "Political Integration of AfroDescendant Communities in South
America" subtitled "Deliberative Democracy: towards strong democracies,"
Cuesta Morúa describes in great details
the advantages of this approach both in
regard to the development of informed
opinion and in the cultivation of civic
virtues. The latter, including tolerance
and mutual respect, active listening, and
a willingness to see oneself as part of a
larger community are often missing in
many of the recent attempts to install
democracy from above in the context of
a "democratic constitution." Democracy, Dewey we reminds us, involves the
personal appropriation of democratic

attitudes as well as voting procedures
and the rights of citizens to exercise that
vote.
In recent years proponents of deliberative democracy have been able to synthesize the late 20th century theories of
deliberative democracy with many 21stcentury examples of deliberative practice. From this synthesis we have come
to see that deliberative democracy is
instantiated in a variety of design protocols that give rise to informed, wellstructured conversations.
In broad outline, these “deliberative
forums” satisfy the following four criteria:

A sample of community members is recruited, either through random sampling techniques (for example, random digit dialing) or more informal ‘convenience’ sampling
techniques (for example, participants recruited through flyers and word-of-mouth). The
goal here is to ensure that a diverse sample of the community joins the conversation.
We want these forums to be inclusive.
Participants get well-balanced background information on the issues to be discussed.
These can be 3-4 page overviews or 10-12 page background documents. The point here
is to ensure that there are facts and multiple perspectives available that can serve as a
guide to the discussion. We want informed conversations.
It will be important that there be a moderator to help guide the discussion and to ensure
that no one person overtakes the conversation and that everyone has a chance to be involved in the conversations. These need to be well-structured conversations.
Sometimes an expert panel is available to answer questions that may arise from the
small group discussions.
Finally, these discussions should be tied to an outcome or an action items. Surveys may
be used to measure these outcomes and stakeholders should agree to listen to the results
of these deliberations, especially if a super majority supports a particular option. In other words, participants need to feel that their efforts have some influence on public policy
or local decisions.

72