The Deliberative Poll in Zeguo Township, Wenling City, China, is the first to our knowledge that was conducted by the government itself and then actually implemented as a way of making public policy. We believe it is the first case in modern times of fully representative and deliberative participatory budgeting. It harks back to a form of democracy quite different from modern western style party competition – Ancient Athens.
- A Fruitful Exploration of Developing Local Democracy
The Zeguo experiment was endorsed by the Central Party School in Beijing.
Research
- Deliberative Democracy in an Unlikely Place: Deliberative Polling® in China
James S. Fishkin, Baogang He, Robert C. Luskin and Alice Siu British Journal of Political Science - Public Consultation through Deliberation in China: the First Chinese Deliberative Poll
James S. Fishkin, Baogang He and Alice Siu
Press
- Deliberative Polling Experiment Produces Lively Debate on Local Democracy China Development Brief 7/2005
- Power to the People China Economic Review 6/2005 PDF
- China’s New Frontiers: Tests of Democracy and Dissent New York Times 5/2005
- Dabbling in Democracy: No one knew what to expect when a Chinese town tried listening to its people TIME Magazine Asia 5/2005
