A Short History of Deliberation

Public deliberation can only be understood in the larger context of democracy. It helps citizens make sound decisions about what policies or collective actions are in their best interest.

But it’s more than that. The values that deliberation promotes are integral to all that has to occur in order for people to rule themselves. Taken out of its proper context, deliberation is misunderstood as simply one more technique that can be used in group processes.

Deliberation was not invented in the United States. It is an ancient practice with roots in most all cultures. For instance, hieroglyphs depicting deliberation were carved into Egyptian buildings thousands of years ago.

Though not unique to the United States, public deliberation has played a crucial role in shaping the kind of democracy that emerged in this country. Those convening or promoting deliberative forums are preserving one of the distinctive characteristics of American democracy.

The first deliberations in what would become the United States occurred in the councils of Native Americans and then in the meetings that produced the Mayflower Compact. The forums convened by the colonial town meetings seem to have been deliberative. This collective decision making became a habit and led to the expectation that citizens should have a voice in governing themselves that went beyond electing representatives.

One of the places public deliberation took hold was in Dorchester, Massachusetts, in the 1630s. The Dorchester town square must have been an excellent place for livestock to graze, but the animals escaped through the fences. That led to two problems: first, how to protect the livestock; and second—the issue behind the issue—how to decide how to protect the livestock.

Dorchester had no local government to address such problems. It didn’t even have an established forum for discussing public matters. The principal place to gather was in church, and Sunday services were not the place to discuss such worldly matters as cows and goats.

It is a shame the events that followed weren’t recorded in great detail. The exact words of the Dorchester townsfolk weren’t written down. Nonetheless, we can imagine the Reverend John Maverick and other community leaders saying, “We have a problem. We need to talk about it. Let’s meet on Monday.”

Colonists began to meet every month, not just when the cows got out. The Dorchester gathering led to an institution that became a foundation of America’s political system: the town meeting.

These early town meetings, however, weren’t at all like today’s town meetings where officials speak and sometimes answer questions. These were occasions in which people could reflect on and, to use John Adams’ word, “maturely” consider the great questions of the day.

The colonists chose not to adopt the English municipal form of government. Instead, they ran the colony by town meetings or a “civil body politick.”

The meetings had no authority other than the power that came from the promises people made to one another to work together. These mutual promises, or covenants, were the bonds that held the colony together and were the basis for its common endeavors. Drawing authority from the people through the town meetings set a powerful political precedent.

Citizens and public bodies continued their influence throughout the revolutionary and constitutional eras. In time, towns in Massachusetts and other colonies established a network for political action. This network was formalized in 1772, when Samuel Adams established a 21-member “committee of correspondence” to create ties to other towns and to explain the colonists’ position to the world. Within 15 months, all but two of the colonies had established their own committees of correspondence. (Correspondence was a substitute for organized meetings, which were often banned.)

By the time of the American Revolution, citizens had to decide whether they wanted independence and whether a war against what was then the world’s greatest power could be successful.

John Adams, from the town meetings of Braintree, Massachusetts, took on the task of defending the proposed Declaration of Independence. Adams’ faith in the Revolution was grounded in what he had learned about people and the power of their public forums.

To those fearing failure in the Revolution, he replied, “But we shall not fail. The cause will raise up armies; the cause will create navies. The people, the people, if we are true to them, will carry us, and will carry themselves, gloriously, through this struggle. I care not how fickle other people have been found. I know the people of these Colonies.”

As John Adams told his wife, Abigail, public deliberation provided needed time for sober reflection, which was a much-needed antidote to hasty reactions.

The town meeting tradition prompted Thomas Jefferson to declare that “the vigor given to our revolution in its commencement” was rooted in “local assemblies or little republics,” which he believed had “thrown the whole nation into energetic action.” Jefferson understood that without places for the public to create its own voice and to define its interests, the government could not govern effectively. This is the same role that institutes and forum sponsors are playing today.

Democracy based on public deliberation is not direct democracy or an alternative to representative democracy. Choosing representatives requires the sound judgment that deliberation promotes.

Despite its long history, the tradition of public deliberation has been subject to ongoing challenges. Sometimes citizens have been swept into making hasty decisions. Free speech, essential to deliberation, has been repressed on more than one occasion. The assumption that people can make a difference in solving our most complex problems has been questioned, and citizens have often been pushed to the sidelines in our political system. In response, Americans who believe that the citizenry is the cornerstone of our democracy have been promoting various types of deliberation.

Kettering has used some of its research to prepare issue books on issues that concern people: education, health care, Social Security, crime, and poverty, to name a few. These are called National Issues Forums issue books because the issues are important to communities nationwide. The books are designed to prompt the same kind of public deliberation that Adams and Jefferson advocated.

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A Short History of Deliberation