Ned Crosby is the American
inventor of Citizens' Juries. He and his wife Pat Benn have
supported and developed these processes over many
years.
In this interview, he and Pat talk about the development of
the process, its refinement over the years and the more recent
development of Citizens' Initiative Review in
Oregon.
Ned created the citizens' jury process in 1971 in response to
his concerns about moral relativism. He decided to ask a randomly
selected group of citizens to reason and consider issues. It wasn’t
until the 1980s that academics started writing about using randomly
selected citizens to deliberate without much awareness of Ned or
Peter Dienel’s practical work.
They set up the
Jefferson Centre in 1974 to work on
basic ways to improve the workings of democracy. They ran many
citizens’ juries over the years including one
to evaluate gubernatorial candidates’ stance on issues
in Minnesota in 1990, another to evaluate US Senate candidates
in Pennsylvania, and two national citizens’ juries in the US in
1993.
The Citizens’ Initiative Review process was based on the
citizens’ jury process to evaluate ballot measures. Citizens’ panel
is asked to determine whether to support or reject a proposed
ballot measure and then their view is included in the voter
pamphlet that is distributed ahead of the vote.
Ned identifies the importance of witnesses to the citizens’
jury process.
Ned and Pat identify as important elements of facilitation of
citizens’ juries
respect and minimising facilitator bias and
lead process without dominating the people.
Ned mentions John Gastil and Jim Fishkin, both
of whom you will hear from in future episodes of this podcast
series.