Voice Of the People is, quite simply, an expression of the will of the people. We are not a group of Americans from any particular side of the political spectrum, or with any particular set of interests we’re trying to advance. Our only agenda is to give voice to the American people as a whole. We believe government decisions should be guided more by the common sense of the people than by powerful special interests.
Research clearly shows that the American people today are demanding a greater voice in government, and powerful new tools have been developed to give them one.
Americans want to re-anchor our democracy in its founding principle – that government should be guided by the will of the people. Voice Of the People is seeking to act on this mandate using powerful new methods of "Public Consultation".
The American people rightly feel they’re not being listened to, that government is more responsive to special interests than the people, and that it often fails to act with common sense -- or fails to act at all. This is not what the Founders intended. The first three words of the Constitution are "We the People" for a reason: They believed that "the sense of the people" should guide the actions Congress. Is that happening today?
We now have better ways, using new methods of public consultation to fix what’s broken in our democracy today, and these methods can now be brought to scale. That’s why we’re here.
Sign up now to learn more about our plans and take part in some of the new public consultation exercises we have planned. Stay tuned for more information in the coming months as we roll out a truly game-changing effort to re-anchor our democracy in ‘We the People.’
The product of two decades of research by social scientists at the University of Maryland and elsewhere, Public Consultation is a cutting edge way to tap what the Founders called the ‘deliberate sense of the people.’ Public Consultation uses the latest advances in scientific sampling and the internet to provide participants with background information and strong pro and con arguments on an issue, developed and reviewed by a bi-partisan team of experts, and then asks people for their opinions. It provides policymakers with something they don’t have now: A clear and accurate picture of informed public opinion.
This gets around a key limitation of traditional polling and other current methods of public engagement, which can yield unrepresentative, inconsistent responses, or off-the-cuff answers that may be based on misinformation or lack of knowledge. It provides meaningful responses on even the most complex issues, and puts people inside the problem in a process that’s both informative and fully transparent.
These new methods can help Congress more meaningfully consult the public on an ongoing basis, give the people a greater voice to help counter the influence of special interests, and help restore the American people's faith in government.
Sign up now to learn more.