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to bind wider constituencies.
97
The danger is, however, that deliberation,
if it has no formal in
uence on decision-making, would amount to
nothing more than a talking shop.
98
The need to control the size of participating groups clearly does place a
practical limit on the potential for peoples
'
views to be altered through
involvement with deliberative processes. Even so, the reach of deliber-
ation can be maximised by providing a variety of opportunities for
citizens to participate in discursive democracy.
99
A range of procedures
are used for deliberation. Some of these such as citizens
juries and
consensus conferences that involve problem-solving and debate between
participants are suited to smaller groups (typically 12 to 25 persons).
100
Others, such as deliberative opinion polls in which members of the
public listen to and question cases presented for different policy options
and vote for their preferred alternative, combine some deliberative con-
tent with participation by larger groups (typically 200 to 500 persons).
101
Evidence from Fishkin
'
s case study of polls held in Texas over the
introduction of renewable energy suggests that this process, although
it is more concerned with testing governmental positions than the
independent development of solutions, can have a signi
'
cant effect
on participants
because the public is arriving at a considered
judgment where previous responses would have represented
'
outlooks
'
'
top of the
.
102
Whatever combination of procedures is employed, what counts if the
aim is to improve democracy
'
'
head
views
s public image is the quality of the overall
process of decision-making.
103
The imaginative design of new institu-
tional structures for ecological governance could promote this end by
requiring that the public be engaged through deliberative fora at differ-
ent stages of decision-making with a view to raising
'
'
the deliberative
of the political system as a whole.
104
democratic content
'
97
Meadowcroft,
'
Deliberative Democracy
'
,pp.201
-
2; Smith,
'
Deliberative Democracy
'
,
pp. 73, 93.
98
Tewdwr-Jones and Allmendinger,
'
Deconstructing Communicative Rationality
'
,
1983.
99
Meadowcroft,
'
Deliberative Democracy
'
,p.199;Smith,
'
Democratic Innovations
'
,
pp. 188
-
9, 197.
100
101
102
Smith,
'
Liberal Democracy
'
,p.147.
Ibid
.
Ibid
.p.149.
103
Meadowcroft,
,p.199.Seealsotheexaminationofcomple-
mentarities between innovations for public participation when used at separate stages
and sometimes also simultaneously under democratic political systems at Smith,
'
'
Deliberative Democracy
'
Democratic Innovations
'
, pp. 188
-
93.
104
Meadowcroft,
'
Deliberative Democracy
'
,p.200.
