National Issues Forum: Economic Security Deliberations

Sponsored by the National Issues Forum and the Kettering Foundation, WIPPS was a principal co-investigator of a national project investigating how widespread public deliberation on the issue of economic security might impact national legislators as they contemplate policy decisions. Co-investigators included sister institutes at Virginia Tech, the University of New Mexico, Kansas State University, and Franklin Pierce College.

During 2010, WIPPS and its sister organizations conducted interviews with U.S. Senators and members of the U.S. House of Representatives to determine whether, and to what extent, they believed understanding citizen views about the economy might affect their decision-making. These same organizations, along with all 13 United States Presidential Libraries and myriad universities and citizen groups across the country, hosted deliberations on the topic of economic security. During the spring of 2011, WIPPS conducted a series of deliberations on this topic across the state of Wisconsin. The results of these deliberations both in Wisconsin and nationwide were presented to state and national media outlets.

A culminating event was held at the National Archives in May 2011, with WIPPS representatives invited to Washington to assist in presenting evidence and contributing to a final national report to be delivered to Congress and to the Office of the President of the United States.