Fishkin and the deliberative opinion poll: Lessons from a study of theGranada 500television program

Abstract

James Fishkin advocates the use of the “deliberative opinion poll” as a means of improving the way in which contemporary democratic systems work and proposes a number of hypotheses about the effects of the deliberative process in such a setting. On the basis of a survey of participants in the Granada 500, a series of television programs screened during the 1992 general election in the United Kingdom that is specifically referred to by Fishkin as an example of a deliberative poll, doubts about the viability and effectiveness of deliberative opinion polls are raised.