America in One Room: Research Practicum

Catalog description

In 2019, Stanford's Deliberative Democracy Lab brought together a national random sample of 523 Americans to deliberate on five major policy issues before the American electorate. We called it America in One Room (A1R). Using the methodology of a Deliberative Poll developed by Professor James Fishkin, the experiment recorded many significant changes in opinion after the participants deliberated, and a substantial decline in partisan polarization. This pattern of change in opinion and depolarization has been evidenced in two subsequent A1R's, in 2021 on Climate and Energy and in June 2023, on options for democratic reform in the US. This research practicum will expose students to the theory and methodology behind these grand experiments and offer students an opportunity to analyze and interpret data?both qualitative (the transcripts from the actual citizen deliberations) and quantitative (the statistical results of the deliberative polls). Students' research and analysis will advance the work of this vital collaborative research project and where possible, joint publications could be pursued. Note, in addition to the weekly course meetings, the teaching team highly recommends scheduling weekly office hours to have dedicated time for individual/group practicum projects.