A deliberative poll is a methodology for measuring public preferences that combines small group discussions and traditional scientific polling. It was created by James Fishkin, political science and communications professor, with the goal of improving the quality of public opinion expression and measurement.

Fishkin argues that traditional polls often do not provide good measures of public opinion because members of the public are not knowledgeable enough about the important issues of the day and do not have the motivation or opportunity to engage in deliberation on the issues. He first proposed the idea of deliberative polling in 1988 as a corrective. Fishkin, who has since trademarked the term Deliberative Poll, currently conducts deliberative polls through the Center for Deliberative Democracy at Stanford University.

Typical deliberative polls have ...