Judgment Analysis in Policy Formation: A New Method for Improving Public Participation

Effective communication between citizens and public officials is essential to a representative democracy, but conventional methods of communication are inade- quate for the process of complex policy formation. Such inadequacy is due, at least in part, to known difficulties of understanding and describing cognitive processes. A new method, derived from social judgment theory, which enhances the quality of communication between the public and its representatives, is described and illustrated.