Regional
Deliberative Polls:
Ordinary
Citizens Chart the Future of their Region
In January of 2002, a randomly selected 1032 citizens of the New Haven region were polled on their views about issues related to regional cooperation. If the results had been released as a standard opinion poll, the headline would have been: 80% of region’s residents favor town control of taxes.
However, this was no ordinary opinion poll. In early March, under the auspices of the League of Women Voters of Connecticut Education Fund, 133 of these citizens – a representative subset of the larger sample, and of the region as a whole -- came together for two days to talk about the issues. It was the first ever Regional Deliberative Poll: a poll of citizens before and after they have had a chance to arrive at considered judgments in conversation with their fellow citizens.
After deliberation, the headline news was strikingly different: only 42% favored municipal control of all tax revenues. Support increased dramatically for the idea of voluntary sharing of incremental revenue and for the use of state incentives to encourage this kind of cooperation. Unlike conventional opinion polls, this Regional Deliberative Poll revealed what the residents of the region would come to believe if they had an opportunity to learn and reflect in the company of people who live in other towns and whose perspectives differ from their own.
This form of public consultation through citizen engagement has the potential to change the terms of debate on issues that require regional cooperation. By engaging citizens across town boundaries, and enabling them to confront their differences as well as to identify common ground, the Deliberative Poll can chart routes to regional cooperation capable of securing widespread political support. This is not an “interest group”, but a representative body of ordinary citizens. Their deliberations offer clues to what kinds of concerns weigh with an informed and engaged public. And their ability to grapple with the complexities of regional interdependence and municipal autonomy poses a challenge to leaders of all kinds to respond to this potential by engaging the public in new ways.
For further information about the Regional Deliberative Poll as a new approach to the debate about regional planning and collaboration, please contact Cynthia Farrar at Cynthia.farrar@yale.edu.