Stromer-Galley et al. on Deliberative e-Rulemaking Decision Facilitation: Challenges to Enacting Real World Deliberation

Professor Dr. Jennifer Stromer-Galley of the University of Albany Department of Communication, Professor Dr. Peter Muhlberger of the Texas Tech University Center of Communications Research, and Nick Webb of the University at Albany Institute for Informatics, Logics and Security Studies, presented a paper entitled Deliberative e-Rulemaking Decision Facilitation: Challenges to Enacting Real World Deliberation, at OD 2010: The Fourth International Conference on Online Deliberation, held 30 June-2 July 2010, at the Leeds University Business School, in Leeds, England, UK.

Here is the abstract:

This paper describes the challenges facing a federal government funded initiative [DeER – Deliberative E-Rule Making Decision Facilitation Project] to promote deliberation to improve the public comment process by federal and state government agencies in the U.S. The three year project has met several difficulties. Some have been technical, such as the challenge of producing quality summaries. But our primary obstacle has been in securing partnerships with government agencies. Due to institutional, legal, and organizational challenges many government agencies are resistant to opening up the public comment process to a deliberative structure. The paper describes the objectives of the original research project and details the challenges faced.

For the full text of the paper, please contact the authors.

Thanks to Professor Dr. Stromer-Galley for providing the abstract.