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    The Australian Citizens' Parliament: forging shared identity through public deliberation

    Access Status
    Fulltext not available
    Authors
    Hartz-Karp, Janette
    Anderson, Patrick
    Gasti, J.
    Felicetti, A.
    Date
    2010
    Type
    Journal Article
    
    Metadata
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    Citation
    Hartz-Karp, Janette and Anderson, Patrick and Gasti, John and Felicetti, Andrea. 2010. The Australian Citizens' Parliament: forging shared identity through public deliberation. Journal of Public Affairs. 10 (4): pp. 353-371.
    Source Title
    Journal of Public Affairs
    DOI
    10.1002/pa.370
    ISSN
    14723891
    School
    Sustainable Policy Institute (CUSP)
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/33170
    Collection
    • Curtin Research Publications
    Abstract

    Active citizen participation is increasingly being recognized as essential to effective public policymaking. A key challenge for public administrators is how to effectively engage constituents' diverse viewpoints in sound deliberation that will likely result in coherent, agreed judgments. This paper investigates one such public deliberation process, Australia's first Citizens' Parliament, which brought together 150 randomly sampled Australian citizens charged with the task of formulating concrete policy proposals to be considered by the Federal government. One unexpected outcome of this initiative, especially given Australian ambivalence about nationalism, was the emergence of a shared identity among participants that appeared to bridge cultural and geographical divides.We explore linkages between salient elements of the deliberative process, the emergence of a sense of ‘being Australian’, and the final agreed list of policy recommendations that indicated an understanding of and commitment to the ‘common good’. If the emergence of a shared identity is acknowledged as a key to the development of a coherent public voice, then further examination of these linkages will be critical to the efficacy of future public deliberations. Moreover, given the heterogeneous nature of the Australian electorate and the challenges inherent in the country's federal governance structure, the findings have significant implications for policymakers in similar constituencies, notably the EU and the USA.

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