The Danish consensus conference model in Switzerland and France: on the importance of framing the issue

This article describes two national deliberative technology assessments (TA's) that took place in Switzerland and France. The Swiss 'Publiforum' gathered to discuss the topic of 'electricity and society' and was considered by the author to be a success for reasons outlined in the article. Key characteristics of the model upon which the conference was based and the final report are given. The French 'Conference de Citoyens', following a different model to that of the Swiss, convened to discuss 'GMOs in agriculture and food'. The author considers the latter to have been unsuccessful and the reasons as to why are listed as well as details of the model used and the ensuing report. The second part of the article briefly describes other conferences on GM in crops and food, gives some key characteristics of these conferences and explains why they did not follow the successful 'Publiforum' model. The author concludes with the hypothesis that if the topic being discussed is regarded as a product (i.e. electricity) rather than a technology (i.e. GM), then a successful TA based on the 'Publiforum' model is possible.