AmericaSpeaks explained

AmericaSpeaks was a Washington, D.C.-based non-governmental organization 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.^[1] 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, its methodology relied on mini-publics, defined as "the randomized selection of citizens to discuss public matters in small groups",^[2] as well as large-group intervention (LGI) to influence organizational change.^[3] 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.^[4] 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.^[5]

The group was founded as a nonpartisan nonprofit organization by activist and author Carolyn Lukensmeyer.^[6] When its closure was announced in 2014, AmericaSpeaks claimed that it had engaged 180,000 people across 150 projects.^[7] Forums organized by AmericaSpeaks included "Our Budget, Our Economy" (2010), a public deliberation about the national debt involving 3,000 people in 19 communities across the United States.^[8] In 2007, AmericaSpeaks worked with city government officials to conduct a series of town meetings on rebuilding New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina, involving citizens who had been displaced via telecasts and online.^[9] In Chicago, AmericaSpeaks worked with the Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission (NIPC) to facilitate discussions around its Common Ground planning process.^[10] Other projects included bringing together 4,500 stakeholders to discuss the redevelopment of ground zero in New York City.^[11]

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.^[12]

See also

• Deliberative democracy
• Participatory democracy
• Public participation
• Town hall meeting

Further reading

• Meyers, L. (2003) ILR organizational change experts get ideas from NYC-Ground Zero town hall organizer Ithaca: Cornell Chronicle.
• Rossant, J. (2005)Putting Global Concerns to a Vote 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 Plan 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.

Notes and References

1. Lukensmeyer . Carolyn J. . Brigham . Steven . March 2005 . Taking Democracy to Scale: Large Scale Interventions-for Citizens . The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science . 41 . 1 . 47–60 . 10.1177/0021886304272656.
2. Book: Šaradín . P. . Challenging Citizens: Democratic Innovations at the Local Level. Central and Eastern European Perspectives on International Relations . Soukop . M. . Zapletalová . M. . Zogata-Kusz . A. . Ganowicz . E. . 2023 . Palgrave Macmillan . Democratic Innovations in Three Countries . 37–51 . 10.1007/978-3-031-43674-1_4. 978-3-031-43673-4 .
3. Book: Encyclopedia of Management Theory . 2013 . SAGE Publications . 9781412997829 . 1 . Thousand Oaks, California . 425.
4. Book: Lees-Marshment, Jennifer . The Ministry of Public Input. Palgrave Studies in Political Leadership . 2015 . Palgrave Macmillan . 978-1-349-43719-1. London . 87–113 . Collecting Public Input . 10.1057/9781137017789_4.
5. Book: Lees-Marshment, Jennifer . The Ministry of Public Input. Palgrave Studies in Political Leadership . 2015 . Palgrave Macmillan . London . 114–138 . 10.1057/9781137017789_5.
6. Gross . Thomas . 2014 . [REVIEW] Bringing Citizen Voices to the Table: A Guide for Public Managers ]. Gestalt Review . 18 . 1 . 65–69 . 10.5325/gestaltreview.18.1.0065 . EBSCOHost.
7. Web site: AmericaSpeaks Closes Down | Participedia . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20170523111535/http://participedia.net/en/news/2014/01/14/americaspeaks-closes-down . 2017-05-23 . 2014-02-11.
8. Levy . Dena . Orr . Susan . January 2014 . Balancing the Books: Analyzing the Impact of a Federal Budget Deliberative Simulation on Student Learning and Opinion . Journal of Political Science Education . 10 . 1 . 62–80 . 10.1080/15512169.2013.859084 . EBSCOHost.
9. D'Agostino . Maria J. . Kloby . Katherine . 2011 . Building Community Capacity to Engage Government: Reflections of Nonprofit Leaders on Post-Katrina New Orleans . Administration & Society . 43 . 7 . 10.1177/0095399711413733.
10. Book: Ramasubramanian, L . Geographic Information Science and Public Participation. Advances in Geographic Information Science . 2010 . Springer . Berlin; Heidelberg . Chicagoland’s Search for Common Ground . 105–118 . 10.1007/978-3-540-75401-5_7. 978-3-540-75400-8 .
11. Book: Polletta, Francesca . Inventing Ties That Bind . May 20, 2021 . University of Chicago Press; Chicago Scholarship Online . Four Publics, Partners, and the Promise of Dialogue . 10.7208/chicago/9780226734347.003.0004.
12. Book: Gastil . John . John Gastil . Hope for Democracy: How Citizens Can Bring Reason Back into Politics . Knobloch . Katherine R. . 2020 . Oxford Academic . A Political Life Transformed . 7–16 . 10.1093/oso/9780190084523.003.0002. 978-0-19-008452-3 .