Hope for Democracy, introduces new tools for tamping down hyper-partisanship and placing citizens at the heart of the democratic process. It showcases the Citizens' Initiative Review, which convenes a stratified random sample of citizens to study ballot measures. Citizen panelists interrogate advocates, opponents, and experts, then write an analysis that distills their findings for voters. Gastil and Knobloch reveal how this process has helped voters better understand the policy issues placed on their ballots. Placed in the larger context of democratic reforms, Hope for Democracy shows how citizens and public officials can work together to bring more rationality and empathy into modern politics.

"Democratic innovations take concerted effort. This is the story of one such effort and we can all learn a lot from the determination, creativity, and resilience required to create a new institution and make it work." -- JAMES FISHKIN, Director of Stanford University's Deliberative Democracy Lab

"Hope for Democracy is an historically-informed, detail-rich exploration of how citizens reasoning together can address the challenges facing their communities. This heartening look at participatory decision making is an antidote to the cynicism that pervades our polarized times." -- KATHLEEN HALL JAMIESON, Director of the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center and author of unSpun: Finding Facts in a World of Disinformation