On June 24, 2011, a scientifically selected random sample of 412 registered voters from throughout the state participated in California’s first ever statewide Deliberative Poll on governance reform, in Torrance, CA.
Ordinary polls provide a momentary snap shot of the public’s impressions. Deliberative Polling addresses the question: what would a scientific sample of the public think about policy issues if it could be engaged in good conditions for thinking about them?
Two of the key policy issues discussed that weekend were the ballot initiative process and the state's legislative representation.
The initiative process, designed to make politicians more responsive to voter needs, allows voters to collect signatures to put a new law or a change to the state constitution before their fellow voters on the ballot. To learn more about the proposals for reforming the process, see the poll results and hear from Californians on the issue, please visit: What's Next California? The Initiative Process
In recent years, some have criticized the performance of California’s Legislature, which has led voters to make changes to how lawmakers are elected and paid, who lawmakers represent, and – most significant – a cap on how many years lawmakers may serve. To learn more about the issue, see the poll results and hear from Californians on the topic, please visit: What's Next California? Legislative Representation
Deliberative Polling shows what a scientific sample of the public thinks about policy issues if they have the opportunity to explore the issues in a setting that encourages informed discourse, including the availability of relevant facts, the opportunity to consider the critical arguments on both sides of issues through face-to- face small group discussions with peers, the opportunity to have questions answered by subject experts spanning the ideological spectrum, and an opportunity to register one’s opinions in confidential questionnaires both before and after this process of deliberation.
The weekend discussions focused on specific reform proposals in four areas: the structure of the legislature, the initiative process, state-local reform and taxes (and related fiscal issues). A total of 30 proposals were considered under these four headings. An initial briefing document of nearly 100 pages was developed by the coalition of partner organizations. The weekend discussions alternated small group and plenary sessions on the four topic areas. Moderators, recruited by the Davenport Institute at Pepperdine University, were trained by the Center for Deliberative Democracy at Stanford.
Over the course of the weekend’s deliberations participants became more informed and in many cases changed their views significantly after deliberation with peers.
For full results of participant responses both before and after the weekend's events, please visit What's Next California? Poll Results
