The public hearing was held in the form of Deliberative Polling. A Deliberative Poll is based on a simple idea: bring together a representative group of citizens, let them deliberate with each other, with politicians and experts, and poll their opoinions before, during and after this process.
Deliberative Polling ® is a method originally developed by Professor James S. Fishkin, Stanford University, USA.
The method of Deliberative Polling combines two normative ideals of democracy. The first ideal stresses that opinions evolve from a process, where the issues at stake are actively debated in the light of information. The other ideal emphasizes that all citizens affected by a decision should be represented in the process. These two ideals combined in the Deliberative Poll give a unique mix of the ancient Athens’ form of face-to-face democracy with the ideal of representative governance. In this way, a Deliberative Poll tries to fulfill the criterion of political equality in the form of representativeness of the public as well as the criterion of deliberation.
As a method, the Deliberative Poll gives an insight of how the voice of the people would have been, if all citizens were given the chance to participate in a similar process. Additionally, a Deliberative Poll prescribes public opinion and does not, like other polling methods, try to describe or predict public opinion. The point is that the participants mirror the public on opinion and social characteristics when they enter the process of the Deliberative Poll and from then on they cease to be representative of mass opinion and instead represent citizens possessing engaged and informed public opinions.
As a method, the Deliberative Poll gives an insight of how the voice of the people would have been, if all citizens were given the chance to participate in a similar process. Additionally, a Deliberative Poll prescribes public opinion and does not, like other polling methods, try to describe or predict public opinion. The point is that the participants mirror the public on opinion and social characteristics when they enter the process of the Deliberative Poll and from then on they cease to be representative of mass opinion and instead represent citizens possessing engaged and informed public opinions.
(Source: Kasper M. Hansen (2004) Deliberative Democracy and Opinion Formation, Odense: University Press of Southern Denmark.)