A group of concerned people sit down and have a long talk about an issue.
Sample Size
High quality deliberation is not feasible with groups larger than about 24. A large group may be partitioned into groups of 12-24 random participants to allow a large group of participants to deliberate effectively.
Examples
- The Kettering Foundation via a large network of National Issues Forums
PROs
- Encourages serious deliberation
CONs
- Due to selection bias, cannot represent the views of the whole population.
- Participants may be more similar to each other than in a random sample resulting in poor quality deliberation.
- Tends to exclude disinterested people who may be best prepared to weigh the issue without bias.