Can People Talk Politics? A Study of Deliberative Democracy

Recently, political deliberation has undergone intensive theoretical scrutiny. While the amount of scholarship on deliberation has been on the rise, it has been limited to a rational / instrumental paradigm focused on the importance of political knowledge and deliberation as an instrument for producing informed public opinion. This dissertation offers an alternative paradigm, called the communal / conversational framework of deliberation, that instead underscores the importance of the enactment of civic identity and the centrality of political conversation before, during and after deliberation occurs. Through the exploration and analysis of four integral research questions—who participates, what do they say, how do they say it, and with what effect—these two frameworks will be compared and contrasted. The normative theoretical principles widely assumed by scholars of deliberative democracy are tested, using bivariate and multivariate analyses, content analysis, and close textual analysis from data generated from a recent project in deliberative democracy. The results provide broad support for the communal/conversational framework of deliberation. While it shares importance with the rational/instrumental framework of deliberation with regard to who participates and with what effect, the communal/conversational framework eclipses the rational/instrumental framework in affording an understanding and predicting what deliberators say and how they say it. It is political conversation, rather than political knowledge, that determines whether someone can in fact be sophisticated in how they talk about politics

Dual Frame (Landline and Cell RDD) Estimation in a National Survey of Latinos

Explores the implications of conducting surveys by both landline and cell phones for issues of survey bias and undercoverage of Latinos, among whom the cell phone-only population is growing. Discusses sampling and weighting methods

Equality of Participation Online Versus Face to Face: Condensed Analysis of the Community Forum Deliberative Methods Demonstration

Online deliberation may provide a more cost-effective and/or less inhibiting environment for public participation than face to face (F2F). But do online methods bias participation toward certain individuals or groups? We compare F2F versus online participation in an experiment affording within-participants and cross-modal comparisons. For English speakers required to have Internet access as a condition of participation, we find no negative effects of online modes on equality of participation (EoP) related to gender, age, or educational level. Asynchronous online discussion appears to improve EoP for gender relative to F2F. Data suggest a dampening effect of online environments on black participants, as well as amplification for whites. Synchronous online voice communication EoP is on par with F2F across individuals. But individual-level EoP is much lower in the online forum, and greater online forum participation predicts greater F2F participation for individuals. Measured rates of participation are compared to self-reported experiences, and other findings are discussed.Comment: 14 pages, 10 tables, to appear in Efthimios Tambouris, Panos Panagiotopoulos, {\O}ystein S{\ae}b{\o}, Konstantinos Tarabanis, Michela Milano, Theresa Pardo, and Maria Wimmer (Editors), Electronic Participation: Proceedings of the 7th IFIP WG 8.5 International Conference, ePart 2015 (Thessaloniki, August 30-September 2), Springer LNCS Vol. 9249, 201

Current Knowledge and Considerations Regarding Survey Refusals: Executive Summary of the AAPOR Task Force Report on Survey Refusals

The landscape of survey research has arguably changed more significantly in the past decade than at any other time in its relatively brief history. In that short time, landline telephone ownership has dropped from some 98 percent of all households to less than 60 percent; cell-phone interviewing went from a novelty to a mainstay; address-based designs quickly became an accepted method of sampling the general population; and surveys via Internet panels became ubiquitous in many sectors of social and market research, even as they continue to raise concerns given their lack of random selection. Among these widespread changes, it is perhaps not surprising that the substantial increase in refusal rates has received comparatively little attention. As we will detail, it was not uncommon for a study conducted 20 years ago to have encountered one refusal for every one or two completed interviews, while today experiencing three or more refusals for every one completed interview is commonplace. This trend has led to several concerns that motivate this Task Force. As refusal rates have increased, refusal bias (as a component of nonresponse bias) is an increased threat to the validity of survey results. Of practical concern are the efficacy and cost implications of enhanced efforts to avert initial refusals and convert refusals that do occur. Finally, though no less significant, are the ethical concerns raised by the possibility that efforts to minimize refusals can be perceived as coercive or harassing potential respondents. Indeed, perhaps the most important goal of this document is to foster greater consideration by the reader of the rights of respondents in survey research

A review of conceptual approaches and empirical evidence on probability and nonprobability sample survey research

There is an ongoing debate in the survey research literature about whether and when probability and nonprobability sample surveys produce accurate estimates of a larger population. Statistical theory provides a justification for confidence in probability sampling as a function of the survey design, whereas inferences based on nonprobability sampling are entirely dependent on models for validity. This article reviews the current debate about probability and nonprobability sample surveys. We describe the conditions under which nonprobability sample surveys may provide accurate results in theory and discuss empirical evidence on which types of samples produce the highest accuracy in practice. From these theoretical and empirical considerations, we derive best-practice recommendations and outline paths for future research

Tabe : test of adult basic education the first step to lifelong success/ Dutwin

xiii, 367 hal. ill. ; 28 cm

TABE Level A Verbal Workbook

Este libro está diseñado para ayudar a conseguir las habilidades necesarias para tener éxito en el examen TABE de secciones verbales. Los temas del libro son: trabajar con más inteligencia (identificar tu objetivo, analizarte como estudiante), lectura (ideas principales y secundarias, conocimiento del vocabulario, leer entre líneas, entender palabras en contexto), lenguaje (composición, edición, ortografía, tipos de frases, los pronombres, sujetos y verbos, singular y plural, los verbos, verbos irregulares, adjetivos y adverbios, preposiciones, signos de puntuación, construir frases y párrafos).scBiblioteca de Educación del Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte; Calle San Agustín, 5 - 3 planta; 28014 Madrid; Tel. +34917748000; [email protected]

McGraw-Hill´s TABE Level D

Este libro está diseñado para ayudar a conseguir las habilidades necesarias para tener éxito en el examen TABE (Prueba de la educación básica para adultos). Los temas del libro son: trabajar con más inteligencia (crear un plan personal de aprendizaje, identificar tu objetivo), lectura (leer para conseguir el significado, leer para sacar conclusiones, entender palabras en contexto), matemáticas (multiplicar números enteros, dividir números enteros, fracciones, decimales, porcentajes, integrales, interpretación de los datos, álgebra, geometría), lenguaje (construir frases y párrafos, los signos de puntuación, pronombres y adjetivos, los verbos), vocabulario (pasos para mejorar tu vocabulario).scBiblioteca de Educación del Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte; Calle San Agustín, 5 - 3 planta; 28014 Madrid; Tel. +34917748000; [email protected]

McGraw-Hill´s TABE Level A

Este libro está diseñado para ayudar a conseguir las habilidades necesarias para tener éxito en el examen TABE (Prueba de la educación básica para adultos). Los temas del libro son: trabajar con más inteligencia (identificar tu objetivo, crear un plan personal de aprendizaje), lectura (utilizar las habilidades de lectura para comprender gráficos y tablas, sacar conclusiones de un cuadro, leer para reconocer técnicas literarias), matemáticas (nuestro segundo lenguaje, geometría, fracciones, decimales), lenguaje (los signos de puntuación, construir frases y párrafos, ortografía).scBiblioteca de Educación del Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte; Calle San Agustín, 5 - 3 planta; 28014 Madrid; Tel. +34917748000; [email protected]