The first Deliberative Polling®: Crime in the United Kingdom

On Friday 15 April 1994 in Manchester, England, a national probability sample of 301 British subjects met for the world’s first Deliberative Poll. The topic was crime, and for the next two days the participants considered and discussed a wide range of policy proposals. They thought aloud in small groups and assembled in larger ones to hear and put questions to panels of experts and representatives of the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democratic parties. At the end (as at the beginning), they gave their opinions. The proceedings were taped and edited down to a two-hour television program later shown on Channel 4.