Deliberative Polling® in the Municipality of Marousi, Greece
One of the two leading political parties in Greece, PASOK, used Deliberative Polling® to select its candidate for mayor in the city of Marousi. Marousi is where the Olympics were held and is in the Athens area. This is the first time that a political party has used Deliberative Polling to democratize candidate selection. The Deliberative Poll serves the same function as a primary. If the experiment is successful, we anticipate wider use for the same purpose.
Research
- Returning Deliberative Democracy to Athens: Deliberative Polling® for Candidate Selection
- James S. Fishkin, Robert C. Luskin, John Panaretos, Alice Siu and Evdokia Xekalaki
Results
Procedures
- Procedures for Selecting Mayoral and Prefectorial Candidates George A. Papandreou, PASOK Party Leader (Complete transcript)
- Overview of the Deliberative Polling® Process, Professor John Panaretos, Dept. of Statistics, Athens University
- Deliberative Polling in Marousi
- www.pasok.gr (in Greek)
- Municipal Elections in Marousi Questionnaire
PASOK Party Leader George A. Papandreou
“Today, I would like to announce one more innovation. A new system of selecting candidates called deliberative polling, a scientific method that is being applied in Greece for the very first time.
It contains elements of preliminary elections, but I would say it is of special interest because it also revives the traditions of ancient Greece in combination with new scientific methodology. A reworking of the concept of choosing by lots practiced in ancient Greek democracy.
Deliberative polling combines the substantive dissemination of information with deliberation among citizens. It addresses many of the weaknesses inherent in political evaluation, but also in the process of direct preliminary elections.
As I said, this is the first time this method will be used in Greece. It has already been used in about forty other instances, but we are breaking new ground here at the international level too: this is the first time this method will be used to support the selection of candidates in local elections. I am very pleased, because what we are about to do for the first time in the world is nothing short of reviving and bringing up to date a practice used extensively during the golden age of democracy in ancient Athens, where citizens were randomly selected to reach important decisions that concerned all of society.”
Press
- Out of the Ruins, John Lloyd, Financial Times
- The Periclian Primary, John Lloyd, La Republica (English Translation)
- What can Deliberative Polling® do for Democracy?, An Interview with Pavlos Hatzopoulos for Re-public
- Le Primarie Modello Pericle, John Lloyd, La Republica (in Italian)
- Picking Candidates by the Numbers George A. Papandreou International Herald Tribune
Deliberative polling is a way to include an informed and representative public voice in the nomination process.
