deliberation policies in Congress

The book Infotopia is a valuable read for anyone interested in policy. One of the research findings that Cass Sunstein discusses is the problem that current deliberation policies in Congress have on the quality of the deliberations. In general, deliberations only work when people with minority opinions are encouraged (even forced) to share their views. It is not that it moves people to more 'moderate' or 'consensus' opinions. What it does is prevent Groupthink and other massive mistakes. So if the party in power restricts the floor time of members of the other party, or members of their own party who disagree with the majority opinion, not only are they violating a core value of the democratic process (my 2 cents), but they are also degrading the quality of their own decision making abilities.

So lets hope that Nancy Pelosi et al don't succumb to this temptation. Hopefully, she will read Cass' book.