That idea sits at the heart of the National Strategy Project.

Professor Jim Fishkin has spent more than 30 years exploring what happens when a representative group of people is given good evidence, time to think, and the opportunity to deliberate with people who see things differently.

The results repeatedly challenge the idea that we are simply too divided to find common ground. People change their minds. They make trade-offs. And, when given the chance to become genuinely informed, they can reach considered judgements about difficult choices.

That is why we are so proud to be working with Jim and Stanford University’s Deliberative Democracy Lab to design the National Dialogue at the heart of the NSP.

Our ambition is not simply to find out what people think today. It is to understand where informed public judgement lies on the big choices shaping the UK’s future – and to connect that judgement to national strategy and action shaped with our people, not done to us.

Jim recently joined Katherine Davies on the Save Democracy podcast to explain how deliberative democracy works and why it matters.

Give it a listen here

This is part of an occasional series about the people and ideas helping to shape and inspire the National Strategy Project.