Consensus Building, Public Dispute Resolution, and Social Justice (Keynote Address)

Resource Type: 
General Resource

"... For consensus building in the public arena to work, we probably need to institutionalize a set of ground rules—that is, to say what the qualities are of good processes—to make sure there is a supply of capable, qualified, professional neutrals, who subscribe to a clear code with regard to their unique responsibilities working in the public policy realm.

"Why wouldn’t public officials prefer to know a way to proceed that would be viewed as meeting everybody’s interests? If we can show that an informed consensus can be produced in a reasonable amount of time, at a reasonable cost, in a way that doesn’t leave anybody out, in a way that deals with inequalities across groups, in a way that ensures that hard-to-represent interests are presented, why wouldn’t that be preferable?"

To read the full text of Lawrence Susskind's keynote address as delivered to an audience at Fordham University (including Q&A), download the PDF.