This report, commissioned by the Council of Europe identifies uses of deliberative democracy and through case studies and expert interviews attempts to understand what a deliberative initiative “looks like”, how such initiatives can be designed and implemented and what challenges public bodies face in moving towards aspects of public deliberation.

This report identifies themes, discusses critical challenges that deliberative practitioners must address and identifies some key requirements for public bodies that might wish to develop deliberative initiatives that are effective and credible and for NGOs wishing to hold, support or participate in deliberative initiatives.

It makes a series of recommendations to support further work in his area by the Council of Europe in order to promote and strengthen deliberative initiatives and led directly to the approval of the first international standard on deliberative democracy, which I was delighted to be able to contribute to.