Many people think that they’re not knowledgable or savvy enough to think through public policy questions, so they shy away from discussing them. In a previous post, I pointed out that this tendency, while understandable, greatly short-changes both the “average” citizen’s abilities and what they can get from civil discussions.
I also mentioned in that previous post that lay citizens’ and experts’ roles are complementary–that, in other words, they tend to contribute different insights to a civil discussion. If you’re interested in delving more deeply into how lay citizens and experts enrich each other’s contributions in civil discussions, have a look at this article .
