Citizens at the centre; deliberative participation in healthcare decisions.

9781861348029

Citizens at the centre; deliberative participation in healthcare decisions.

Davies, Celia et al.

Policy Press

2006

292 pages

$39.95

Paperback

RA395

In recent years, there has been an almost Panglossian faith in "deliberative democracy" as a solution for failures in democratic policy formation processes and the disconnection between average citizens and their governments. Davies (director, Research for Patient Benefit Programme, National Institute for Health Research, UK), Wetherell (social psychology, the Open U., UK), and Barnett (health and social care, the Open U.) present an ethnographic analysis of one experiment in deliberative democracy: the creation implementation of the Citizens Council in the health service standard-setting National Institute for Clinical Excellence in the UK. After setting out the wider context, the authors examine the interaction dynamics of the Citizens Council through analysis of video and transcripts of the Council's first four meetings and interviews with participants. They also provide a not entirely positive assessment of the extent to which the Council achieved the goal of deliberative democracy and draw out the implications for future efforts. Distributed in the US by ISBS.

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