Criticisms of the Methodology

• This page will be expanded
• Observers here may mean academics, participants, those within organizations who have colleagues using the tool, etc.
• Observers have reasonably asked whether Polis is a tool for surveying a population, or for developing consensus. Whether the exercise has a goal or not, and opinions about whether it should, in either case, open up the methodology to critique.
  • This is especially true given that participants may see the full or partial results of the conversation while they are participating in it. There is a broader discussion to be had in the academic community about the social aspects of opinion formation, and whether that's normal and good. See, for instance: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0078433 Polis and CompDem look forward to engaging in future discussions on this topic, as it will inevitably instruct future development.