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. 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", as well as large-group intervention (LGI) to influence organizational change. 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. 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.
The group was founded as a nonpartisan nonprofit organization by activist and author Carolyn Lukensmeyer. When its closure was announced in 2014, AmericaSpeaks claimed that it had engaged 180,000 people across 150 projects. 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. 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. In Chicago, AmericaSpeaks worked with the Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission (NIPC) to facilitate discussions around its Common Ground planning process. Other projects included bringing together 4,500 stakeholders to discuss the redevelopment of ground zero in New York City.
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.
See also Deliberative democracy Participatory democracy Public participation Town hall meeting
References
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.