Yankelovich Stronger Democracy Program: Ideas
The Yankelovich Stronger Democracy Program contributes research, ideas and tools that support sound public judgment and meaningful public participation.
How can public engagement change in order to meet the challenges and conditions of 2017? There are a number of promising directions for new innovations. In this series, Vice President for Public Engagement Matt Leighninger explores each of these directions for innovation in greater depth.
Public Agenda’s Sounder Public Judgment Working Paper Series offers fresh thinking on this profound challenge facing our democracy, and explores potential solutions. The papers draw on the thinking of leading researchers and practitioners in the fields of communications, public opinion, public engagement, digital technology, and social change.
Keypads have made their way from game shows and talk shows to higher education settings, to which much of the literature pertains. The uses continue to expand to other arenas, with an emerging body of literature discussing the use of keypads for public participation efforts during town hall meetings and other similar convenings. Keypads allow … Read more
Matt Leighninger has been in a position to witness and report on the larger patterns in the many strands of the deliberative democracy movement that have been emerging in recent years. His broad experience and networks help him show how local public engagement initiatives reflect a broader movement towards a more citizen-centered and community-centered politics. … Read more
Too often, the people working to strengthen democracy have been caught flat-footed by the pace of new trends and innovations. All kinds of changes, many of them driven by technology, are affecting how we live, work, vote, interact, and get information. It has always been difficult to understand the implications of trends in the moment, … Read more
While framing has received significant mainstream attention of late, what is not being discussed is the limited context in which framing is conceived. For the current infatuation with framing is concerned virtually exclusively with the power politics of parties and interest groups, and the winning or losing of their respective battles. But what if we … Read more
Public Agenda teams up with Martín Carcasson from the Center for Public Deliberation at Colorado State University to disseminate his latest thinking about the goals and consequences of public deliberation. This essay is particularly useful for public engagement practitioners who are constantly dealing with the challenges of designing effective avenues for public participation. Carcasson provides … Read more