Deliberating Herders: Encouraging Democratic Deliberation in Mongolia

Abstract

How can herders directly participate in national policy debates and deliberations? In this article I assess two episodes of the Mongolian Open Society Institute's TV Forum which was nationally televised between 2005 and 2006. Focusing on two episodes which debate mining policy, I ask how herder participation was modelled through topical framing, speaking roles and decision-making criteria. Then, from this analysis, I examine the ways in which contemporary ICTs (Internet and Communication Technologies) could be used to encourage herder participation in future deliberations.