The Center for Democratic Deliberation (CDD) was founded in 2006 as a nonpartisan, interdisciplinary center for research, teaching, and outreach on issues of civic engagement and democratic deliberation. It is concerned with two of the most basic requirements of a healthy participatory democracy: (1) a citizenry with the knowledge and communicative skills necessary for engaged democratic citizenship; and (2) a culture of vibrant, informed deliberation, where citizens discuss, debate, and render collective decisions on matters of public importance.
The CDD recognizes that if citizens are to participate in civic affairs, they must have good information and the critical skills necessary to evaluate information and arguments. They must know how to articulate their own views on important issues, and they need opportunities to test their opinions in the give-and-take of public debate. They must understand the rules and traditions of democratic deliberation, and they need at least some basic knowledge of America’s history and political institutions. Above all, they must be motivated to participate, and they need assurances that their participation matters. The CDD promotes these goals by sponsoring research on the problems and challenges of democratic citizenship in the twenty-first century, and through curriculum and outreach initiatives designed to encourage more robust public deliberation.
Center Co-Director J. Michael Hogan, Fellows Sara Ann Mehltretter and David Green, and Research Assistant and Past Fellow Jessica Sheffield with Distinguished Speakers Karl Rove and Howard Dean
Center News and Events
Join the CDD for our exciting spring events!
- Join us for the upcoming Institute for the Arts and Humanities/Center for Democratic Deliberation Symposium, "The Rhetorical Presidency of the Early Republic." The event will be held at the Palmer Lipcon Auditorium on Friday, March 26 from 9:00 am-4:30 pm.
Featured speakers will include:
Stephen H. Browne (Penn State University)
Christopher Castiglia (Penn State University)
Stephen Hartnett (University of Colorado)
William Pencak (Penn State University)
Philippe-Joseph Salazar (University of Cape Town)
C. Jan Swearingen (Texas A&M University).
- Mark your calendars now for the Eighteenth Annual Kenneth Burke Lecture in Rhetoric with featured speaker, Philippe-Joseph Salazar, Distinguished Professor of Rhetoric, University of Cape Town. Professor Salazar's talk, "Managing the Public: Melancholy Remarks on Rhetorical Technologies." will be held in Alumni Lounge of the Nittany Lion Inn on Saturday, March 27th at 7:00 pm.
CDD co-director Cheryl Glenn recently gave two lectures on rhetoric and gender at the Norwegian School of Business in Oslo. Read more about these lectures here (Google translation).