Gyeonggi Province Holds 200 Citizens in 1-Night 2-Day 'Marathon Deliberation'

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Jang Kyung-hee] The 'deliberative democracy' system is being fully implemented in Gyeonggi Province under the seventh popularly elected administration.

According to the province on the 28th, from August 31st to September 1st, a '2019 Gyeonggi Province Policy Public Deliberation Survey Deliberation Forum' will be held at YBM Training Center in Hwaseong with approximately 200 citizen participants in attendance for a 1-night 2-day event.

The citizen participants will receive objective information across four sessions: ▲Present and future of life ▲Concepts, necessity, targets, and effects of basic income ▲Funding for basic income ▲Implementation methods for basic income.

Subsequently, participants will hold discussions on basic income by small group and engage in deliberation led by citizens themselves.

Through this process, the province plans to explore the future direction of basic income policy by conducting a 'public deliberation survey' that tracks how public opinion changes.

This is the first time the province has conducted a 'public deliberation survey on provincial policy.'

The public deliberation survey on 'The Future of Welfare Policy and Basic Income' is being conducted by a consortium of Korea Research Institute/Conflict Resolution & Peace Center at the province's request, and the 'Provincial Public Deliberation Survey Research Advisory Committee,' established to enhance the professionalism and neutrality of the survey, is reviewing and providing consultation on all aspects of the survey.

In particular, this survey is characterized by conducting an 'open discussion' format where, rather than choosing one from limited pro-and-con alternatives, policy alternatives are derived through Q&A; with experts on the agenda, small group discussions, and whole group sharing.

The approximately 200 citizen participants were selected based on objective criteria such as gender, age, and region after conducting a first survey of 2,549 respondents from June 28th to July 31st.

The participants, having preliminarily studied related information provided online and offline to easily understand the selected agenda and discussion issues, participate in the 1-night 2-day forum divided into 10 groups each, totaling 20 small groups.

Gwak Yoon-seok, Director of Public Relations and Planning for Gyeonggi Province, stated, "While the legislation of basic income may be a future matter, research and discussion on basic income are certainly a current task," adding "Through this public deliberation survey, I hope a model for direct democracy policy development will be created in Gyeonggi Province where citizens directly participate and deliberate."

The province plans to analyze and organize the results of the forum deliberation by November and utilize them as basic data for policy establishment.