What is an issue book and an issue brief?
Deliberative dialogues often use a certain kind of discussion guide to help facilitate public deliberation-the making of choices together. Public issues and community problems often present us with a variety of choices for understanding and acting on a problem. We find that polarization is avoided and productive dialogue and deliberation are encouraged when issues are presented with more than two sides, which is the way citizens actually tend to relate to issues. Issue books or issue briefs frame an issue in terms of three and sometimes four approaches or choices. (Issue briefs are shorter, at-a-glance versions of the choices for deliberation.) Less than three seems to promote debate and more than four gets too unwieldy for group discussion. These various approaches often conflict with each other and have tension between and within them mirroring the conflicts and tensions that are among and within the participants as well. The issue book or brief provides a brief overview of the probl
