A key for deliberative democracy
European local and national governments are begin ning to practice deliberative
forms of decisional processes. Citizens juries, 21st Century town meetings,
deliberative polls, participatory budgets are not any more only american experiences.
Despite this new public interest in deliberative democracy, the choice to
organize a deliberative process usually is not based upon an evaluation of the usefulness
and efficacy of different kinds of practices and models. Looking at some
italian experiences, this article argues that the efficacy of many deliberative instruments
depends on the political aim of the process and suggests that being aware of
this relation may improve the design of some elements of deliberative processes.