NCDD June Webinar Recap - Deliberation in Action: A Civic Season Call to Reimagine Democracy

On June 23, 2025, NCDD hosted an energizing webinar, Deliberation in Action: A Civic Season Call to Reimagine Democracy. Held during Civic Season—the stretch between Juneteenth and the Fourth of July—this timely session brought together field leaders working to revitalize democracy through deliberative engagement and citizen empowerment.

Co-presenters Roshan Bliss (NCDD), Marjan Ehsassi (FIDE – North America), Katie Fahey (The People), Christine Lopes Metcalfe (Local Policy Lab), and Rahmin Sarabi (American Public Trust) shared real-world examples of how citizens’ assemblies and other deliberative practices are driving change in places like Montrose, Colorado; California; Michigan; and beyond. Speakers explored what it means to grow civic infrastructure from the ground up, integrate deliberation into decision-making, and build trust through participatory processes that center transparency, equity, and shared power.

Panelists emphasized that deliberative democracy is not a one-time event—it’s a long-term cultural shift rooted in community relationships and ongoing collaboration. From navigating polarization and funding challenges to designing inclusive, local systems of participation, the conversation lifted up both the promise and complexity of this work. Attendees left with key insights, examples, and renewed energy to help embed deliberative values in the heart of democratic life. ​Read more lessons from the webinar and watch the recording below.

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Key Themes & Insights

Deliberative Democracy as Cultural Infrastructure

• Deliberative processes like citizens’ assemblies are not one-time interventions—they’re part of a larger cultural shift that centers listening, trust, transparency, and collaboration.
• Move beyond transactional engagement to long-term democratic habits that communities practice and expect.
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Local is Foundational

• Deliberative democracy takes root at the local level. It’s where trust is built, problems are felt most acutely, and innovation is often most possible.
• Local processes can shape state and national policy, not just respond to it.

Power in Process

• Citizens’ assemblies increase legitimacy, transparency, and people's sense of agency. When done well, they create an “infrastructure for governance,” not just engagement.
• The process is the product—outcomes matter, but how communities arrive at them is equally vital for legitimacy.

Bridging Across Differences Through Structure

• Deliberative democracy offers not just open conversation, but structured, inclusive mechanisms to channel disagreement productively.
• Assemblies allow people to come in with frustration and leave with a sense of shared understanding, even when they don’t agree.

Deliberation as a Tool for Coalition-Building

• Deliberative processes could be used internally in the field for strategic visioning and coalition alignment, not just externally with the public.
• This use of deliberation within movements helps reduce fragmentation and build shared strategy across organizations and initiatives.

Sense of Agency as a Core Outcome

• Participants report an increased sense of agency after engaging in citizens' assemblies or deliberative spaces.
• This isn’t just about policy impact—it’s about people seeing themselves as part of governance and democratic life again.

Narrative Change & Popular Imagination

• Deliberative democracy must become part of the public’s shared story of what democracy is—not just a specialist tool but a cultural norm.
• The field needs more storytelling, visibility, and a greater connection between high-level reform and everyday people’s lives.

Embedding Deliberation in Civic Identity

• Deliberative practices should be part of how we identify as democratic citizens, not just as a policy tool but as a civic habit.
• This work includes storytelling, youth engagement, and aligning practices with people’s lived realities.

Challenges to Consider

While momentum around deliberative democracy is growing, several key challenges continue to limit its full potential:
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• Lack of Public Awareness or Understanding: Many community members and decision-makers are unfamiliar with deliberative processes or how they function, making buy-in and implementation more difficult.
• Political Polarization & Mistrust: Deepening polarization can make it harder to build trust in the process or ensure diverse participation, especially when deliberative spaces are seen as politically suspect or elite-driven.
• Limited Capacity for Local Implementation: Even where interest exists, local governments or communities may lack the staffing, training, or infrastructure to carry out deliberative processes well.
• Fragmentation and Siloed Efforts: Organizations often operate in isolation, leading to duplicated efforts and missed opportunities for alignment. Greater coordination across the field is needed to build a shared strategy and impact.
• Top-Down vs. Bottom-Up Tensions: Many funders still favor top-down initiatives, even though some of the most successful deliberation happens from the ground up—led by communities, not institutions.
• Short-Term Funding Cycles vs. Long-Term Cultural Change: Cultural and democratic transformation requires sustained investment, but most funding streams are short-term and outcome-focused.
• Tension Between Flexibility and Fidelity: Adapting processes to local context is vital, but the field risks inconsistency or dilution of quality without a shared understanding of core principles.
• Fragmented Field Narratives: The field suffers from scattered language, competing frameworks, and limited collective storytelling, making it harder to build a unified movement or shared public narrative.
• Overemphasis on Outcomes at the Expense of Process: The field has become increasingly outcome-driven, risking the loss of the value and dignity of the process itself. Deliberation reminds us that how we decide is just as important as what we decide. Re-centering process is critical to long-term trust, legitimacy, and sustainable engagement.

Best Practices & Real-World Examples

Across the conversation, panelists highlighted concrete examples of deliberative democracy in action, demonstrating how these practices are implemented at local, state, and national levels. These case studies offer insight into the practical impact, adaptability, and innovation possible through citizens’ assemblies and related processes.

➤ Montrose, CO – Unify America’s Democratic Hub
Began as a citizens’ assembly and evolved into an ongoing civic hub. Shows how a one-time deliberative process can be a launching point for long-term civic infrastructure.

➤ California – Office of Civic Engagement & Deliberative Democracy
Rahmin described how the Governor’s office is piloting citizens’ assemblies as a way to build breakthroughs across levels of government. The process included both policymakers and residents, helping bridge structural and civic perspectives.

➤ Michigan – Ballot Initiative Engagement
Katie shared how deliberative processes were used to inform ballot initiative design in Michigan. Used as a proactive way to inform democratic reforms rather than just react to political conditions.

➤ Fort Collins, CO – Civic Assembly on Land Use
Rahmin discussed how this process led to greater legitimacy and a stronger community mandate for land-use decisions, as featured in a recent op-ed.

➤ Yukon, Canada – Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform
Marjan highlighted a detailed and well-documented case study demonstrating design standards, process integrity, and outcome legitimacy.

➤ Using AI for Deliberation Prep & Data Processing
Rahmin pointed to AI tools (like Polis) and machine learning as potential back-end supports to make deliberation more scalable, accessible, and impactful—particularly for aggregating public input before assemblies.

Stay Connected

If you’re energized by the powerful examples and ideas shared in this session, we invite you to join NCDD and connect with a national network of dialogue and deliberation practitioners working to strengthen democracy from the ground up. Whether you're piloting a citizens’ assembly, building local civic infrastructure, or simply curious about what deliberative democracy looks like in practice, there’s a place for you in this community.

Continue the conversation, access resources, and find support for your work by becoming a member at ncdd.org/join!

Want to Watch the Webinar or Explore More?

• Watch the recording: linked here!
  
• Explore the PowerPoint slide deck: linked here
  
• Check out the curated resources from the webinar: linked here
  
• Find the chat transcript: linked here 
  
• Complete our feedback survey to help shape future events