CIR on Australian radio
Australian Broadcasting Corp. (ABC, equivalent to BBC in the UK) did a 20-minute story on a citizens’ jury in Melbourne and drew on the experience of the Oregon Citizens’ Initiative Review as a point of comparison. I (John Gastil) provided commentary on the Oregon case, which serves as an example of how citizen deliberation can get built into government institutions.
The Melbourne citizens’ jury came up with recommendations for long-term budgeting, and there’s a good chance the jury’s findings will influence massive budget decisions amounting to more than a billion dollars (over ten years) in revenue and spending. It’s another example of the global spread of deliberative initiatives.