The IDEA Toolkit | Institute for Democratic Engagement & Accountability

Michael Neblo testified in the congressional hearing.

Citizens aren't disengaged because they're apathetic. They're frustrated. Traditional town halls and other engagement methods reward the loudest voices, not the most representative ones. The result is polarization, distrust, and policymaking based on skewed inputs.

The IDEA Toolkit offers two evidence-based engagement formats, Deliberative Town Halls and Citizens' Assemblies, used by Members of Congress in the United States and by elected officials around the world. Both help public officials reconnect with the people they serve and bring authentic, informed, representative input into the policymaking process.

The Tools

Deliberative Town Halls

Our flagship innovation. Deliberative Town Halls are one of the most well-proven models in the world for reconnecting representatives with their constituents. They are designed to rebuild trust and to give lawmakers actionable insight into constituent opinion. They can be used at every stage of the policymaking process: to discover priorities, to test policy options, or to gather feedback and accountability on enacted legislation. Each event involves a representative sample of constituents, runs about an hour, and is conducted online to lower barriers to participation.

What makes a Deliberative Town Hall "deliberative"?

Citizens' Assemblies

A Citizens' Assembly is a deliberative process in which a smaller representative cross-section of residents convenes over several sessions, studies a question in depth, deliberates together to reach a rough consensus, and develops recommendations for decision-makers to respond to. Assemblies are citizen-to-citizen forums. Policymakers participate at the beginning to set the scope and at the end to respond to the recommendations. Widely used across Europe at every level of government, including the European Union, Citizens' Assemblies are now being adopted in the United States. IDEA senior fellow Marjan Ehsassi and her organization, FIDE-NA, provide training, technical assistance, and evaluation for lawmakers who want to adopt this model.

Citizens' Assembly

The Impact of Using These Tools

1 Reaches beyond the usual suspects

Deliberative events recruit a representative cross-section of constituents, giving lawmakers a way to engage citizens who tend not to follow politics or who have grown disenchanted with the system. After participating, those same citizens became more likely to vote and to take part in political discussions.

2 Produces informed, high-quality conversation

With non-partisan background materials provided in advance and a neutral facilitator running the discussion, deliberative engagements produce informed conversation rather than talking points or simplistic arguments.

3 Builds trust in elected officials

Participating in a deliberative engagement significantly increased citizens' trust and approval of the elected official involved.

4 Translates into electoral support

Four months after the event, participants were 10 percent more likely to vote for the representative who engaged with them in this way.