AmericaSpeaks was a

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

–based

non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

that operated from 1995 to 2014. Its mission was to engage citizens in discussing and influencing public decisions and serve as a counterweight to

special interest groups A special interest group (SIG) is a community within a larger organization with a shared interest in advancing a specific area of knowledge, learning or technology where members cooperate to effect or to produce solutions within their particular f ...

. It introduced the concept of the "21st Century Town Meeting", a format that attempted to take the traditional New England town meeting to a larger scale through the use of modern technology. Widely cited as an example of

deliberative democracy Deliberative democracy or discursive democracy is a form of democracy in which deliberation is central to decision-making. Deliberative democracy seeks quality over quantity by limiting decision-makers to a smaller but more representative sample ...

, its methodology relied on mini-publics, defined as "the randomized selection of citizens to discuss public matters in small groups", as well as large-group intervention (LGI) to influence organizational change. It applied the concept of expert publics, recognizing that members of the general public can develop knowledge and expertise through their own experience of an issue or problem. At the same time, the organization worked closely with policymakers to define the scope and choices to be discussed, arguing that the data collected would be directly relevant and more likely to influence outcomes. The group was founded as a

nonpartisan Nonpartisan or non-partisan may refer to: __NOTOC__ General political concepts * Nonpartisanship, also known as Nonpartisanism, co-operation without reference to political parties * Non-partisan democracy, an election with no official recognition ...

nonprofit organization by activist and author Carolyn Lukensmeyer. When its closure was announced in 2014, AmericaSpeaks claimed that it had engaged 180,000 people across 150 projects. Forums organized by AmericaSpeaks included "Our Budget, Our Economy" (2010), a public deliberation about the

national debt A country's gross government debt (also called public debt or sovereign debt) is the financial liabilities of the government sector. Changes in government debt over time reflect primarily borrowing due to past government deficits. A deficit occ ...

involving 3,000 people in 19 communities across the United States. In 2007, AmericaSpeaks worked with city government officials to conduct a series of town meetings on rebuilding

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

following

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a powerful, devastating and historic tropical cyclone that caused 1,392 fatalities and damages estimated at $125 billion in late August 2005, particularly in the city of New Orleans and its surrounding area. ...

, involving citizens who had been displaced via telecasts and online. In Chicago, AmericaSpeaks worked with the Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission (NIPC) to facilitate discussions around its Common Ground planning process. Other projects included bringing together 4,500 stakeholders to discuss the redevelopment of

ground zero A hypocenter or hypocentre (), also called ground zero or surface zero, is the point on the Earth's surface directly below a nuclear explosion, meteor air burst, or other mid-air explosion. In seismology, the hypocenter of an earthquake is its p ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

Outcomes

Critics of AmericaSpeaks have pointed out the biases inherent in how specific topics were presented to forum participants; the lack of transparency in how decisions were made; and skepticism that the time and effort invested by participants would not matter in the end.

References

{{Reflist

* Meyers, L. (2003
ILR organizational change experts get ideas from NYC-Ground Zero town hall organizer
Ithaca: Cornell Chronicle. * Rossant, J. (200

BusinessWeek.com * Warner, C. (2007
Unified N.O. Plan gaining steam
New Orleans: Times Picayune. * Krupa, M. (2006
Survey backs plan for smaller footprint
New Orleans: Times Picayune * Unified New Orleans Pla
Community Congress II Preliminary Report
* Williamson, A. (2007)
Citizen Participation in the Unified New Orleans Plan
Harvard * Cupka, M. (2008
Where Americans speak out about the issues
AmericaSpeaks.com * Brigham, S. (2006) Taking Democracy to a Regional Scale in Hamilton County. The Handbook of Large Group Methods: Creating Systemic Change in Organizations and Communities. (pp 231–245). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. * Leighninger, M. (2006). The Next Form of Democracy: How Expert Rule Is Giving Way to Shared Governance and Why Politics Will Never Be the Same. (pp 48, 66, 143-147). Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press. * Epstein, P., Coates, P., Wray, L., Swain, D. (2006). Results that Matter: Improving Communities by Engaging Citizens, Measuring Performance, and Getting Things Done. (pp 28–29, 166-169, 200-201). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. * Nobel, P. (2005). Sixteen acres: architecture and the outrageous struggle for the future of Ground Zero. (pp 103–106). New York: Metropolitan Books, Henry Holt and Co. Deliberative groups Community building Defunct political organizations of the United States Non-profit organizations based in Washington, D.C. Organizations established in 1995 Political organizations disestablished in 2014 Political science organizations

Outcomes

See also

References

Further reading