John Rountree
Biographic Data
| ID | 3471014 |
|---|---|
| NAME | John Rountree |
| GIVEN NAMES | John |
| FAMILY NAME | Rountree |
| SIGNATURE | ROUNTREE J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Houston - Downtown |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4097-5385 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 26 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 11 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1995 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
The Case for Using Generative AI to Run Deliberation Simulations
This is an accepted article with a DOI pre-assigned that is not yet published.Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI)language models, such as ChatGPT, Bloom, and Copilot, may offer transformativepossibilities for deliberative democracy. We argue that deliberation scholarsand practitioners should use GAI models to run deliberation simulations tocomplement existing deliberative processes. By simulations, we mean the use ofGAI software to run hypot…
‘I am going to be a cold robot on Zoom if I do that’
During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, Healthy Democracy, a nonpartisan civic organization in Oregon, convened the Oregon Citizens' Assembly Pilot on COVID-19 Recovery (ORCA), the first attempt in the United States to conduct a citizens' assembly entirely on a synchronous online video platform. This study examines the tensions ORCA facilitators experienced while facilitating in this new online environment. Drawing on Relational Dialect…
The Washington Climate Assembly
In this essay, we use applied rhetorical criticism to analyze how facilitators navigate online deliberation in the Washington Climate Assembly, a public deliberation process held virtually in January and February 2021. We draw on interviews with organizers and facilitators and from observational notes taken by the research team during Assembly deliberations. This analysis focuses on the Assembly's online note-taking practices. Previous research h…
Rhetorical Alignment between Political Campaign Discourse and Democratic Deliberation
The role of rhetoric in deliberation has received considerable attention in deliberative and rhetorical theory, but it is still unclear how non-deliberative rhetoric can work symbiotically with deliberative rhetoric within deliberative events. This essay builds on previous theorizing to better understand the potential for overlap between these two kinds of rhetoric. We introduce the concept of rhetorical alignment as a practice that interfaces no…
Meta-deliberation about congressional town hall meetings
Congressional town hall meetings are prominent political forums in the United States where constituents and members of Congress publicly converse on exigent policy issues, but they have seldom received scholarly attention. This study analyzes one aspect of congressional town halls: their contested meanings in public discourse. I conduct a rhetorical analysis of congressional town hall “meta-deliberation” through news articles, town hall videos, a…
Rhetorical Criticism
This chapter describes rhetorical criticism as a research method for studying democratic deliberation. It begins by defining rhetoric and rhetorical criticism and outlining the major theoretical assumptions underlying this approach. In doing so, this chapter situates rhetorical criticism in a broader scholarly context to highlight its strengths and weaknesses. Influenced by post-structuralism, critical theory, and feminist theory, rhetorical inqu…
The internal dynamics of “scaling up” deliberative mini-publics
Recent deliberative systems research has emphasized the need to “scale up” deliberative mini-publics by exploring connections between mini-publics and broader arenas of policymaking. Less is known, however, about how the policy environment in a state or region might itself influence a deliberative event. In this article, we set out to examine how the internal dynamics of mini-publics are affected by the scaling-up process of connecting to larger …
Research Methods in Deliberative Democracy
Research Methods in Deliberative Democracy is the first book that brings together a wide range of methods used in the study of deliberative democracy. It offers thirty-one different methods that scholars use for theorizing, measuring, exploring, or applying deliberative democracy. Each chapter presents one method by explaining its utility in deliberative democracy research and providing guidance on its application by drawing on examples from prev…
Gridlock and Rhetorics of Distrust
Gridlock plagues modern policy deliberations in Congress. By analyzing the 2013 Senate debate over the “Gang of Eight” immigration bill, this essay shows how distrust operates as a rhetorical stance that forecloses compromise and justifies corrosive legislative stalemates. Despite agreeing on most policy specifics, congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle constructed subversive, untrustworthy policy actors to legitimate their refusal to c…
Burke’s Pentad as a Guide for Symbol-Using Citizens
The president as god, the recession as evil
This essay uses theodicy to analyze political discourse concerning President Bush's relationship to the “evil” (recessionary) economy during his 1992 reelection campaign. It shows that Bush, Clinton, and the news media struggled over the issues of the President's knowledge, benevolence, and power concerning the economic evil and whether a Democrat‐controlled White House would be worse. Unable to overcome the charge that he was out of touch, Bush …
Research Methods in Deliberative Democracy
Research Methods in Deliberative Democracy is the first book that brings together a wide range of methods used in the study of deliberative democracy. It offers thirty-one different methods that scholars use for theorizing, measuring, exploring, or applying deliberative democracy. Each chapter presents one method by explaining its utility in deliberative democracy research and providing guidance on its application by drawing on examples from prev…
The internal dynamics of “scaling up” deliberative mini-publics
Recent deliberative systems research has emphasized the need to “scale up” deliberative mini-publics by exploring connections between mini-publics and broader arenas of policymaking. Less is known, however, about how the policy environment in a state or region might itself influence a deliberative event. In this article, we set out to examine how the internal dynamics of mini-publics are affected by the scaling-up process of connecting to larger …
Gridlock and Rhetorics of Distrust
Gridlock plagues modern policy deliberations in Congress. By analyzing the 2013 Senate debate over the “Gang of Eight” immigration bill, this essay shows how distrust operates as a rhetorical stance that forecloses compromise and justifies corrosive legislative stalemates. Despite agreeing on most policy specifics, congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle constructed subversive, untrustworthy policy actors to legitimate their refusal to c…
The president as god, the recession as evil
This essay uses theodicy to analyze political discourse concerning President Bush's relationship to the “evil” (recessionary) economy during his 1992 reelection campaign. It shows that Bush, Clinton, and the news media struggled over the issues of the President's knowledge, benevolence, and power concerning the economic evil and whether a Democrat‐controlled White House would be worse. Unable to overcome the charge that he was out of touch, Bush …
The president as god, the recession as evil
This essay uses theodicy to analyze political discourse concerning President Bush's relationship to the “evil” (recessionary) economy during his 1992 reelection campaign. It shows that Bush, Clinton, and the news media struggled over the issues of the President's knowledge, benevolence, and power concerning the economic evil and whether a Democrat‐controlled White House would be worse. Unable to overcome the charge that he was out of touch, Bush …
Burke’s Pentad as a Guide for Symbol-Using Citizens
Gridlock and Rhetorics of Distrust
Gridlock plagues modern policy deliberations in Congress. By analyzing the 2013 Senate debate over the “Gang of Eight” immigration bill, this essay shows how distrust operates as a rhetorical stance that forecloses compromise and justifies corrosive legislative stalemates. Despite agreeing on most policy specifics, congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle constructed subversive, untrustworthy policy actors to legitimate their refusal to c…
Rhetorical Criticism
This chapter describes rhetorical criticism as a research method for studying democratic deliberation. It begins by defining rhetoric and rhetorical criticism and outlining the major theoretical assumptions underlying this approach. In doing so, this chapter situates rhetorical criticism in a broader scholarly context to highlight its strengths and weaknesses. Influenced by post-structuralism, critical theory, and feminist theory, rhetorical inqu…
The internal dynamics of “scaling up” deliberative mini-publics
Recent deliberative systems research has emphasized the need to “scale up” deliberative mini-publics by exploring connections between mini-publics and broader arenas of policymaking. Less is known, however, about how the policy environment in a state or region might itself influence a deliberative event. In this article, we set out to examine how the internal dynamics of mini-publics are affected by the scaling-up process of connecting to larger …
Research Methods in Deliberative Democracy
Research Methods in Deliberative Democracy is the first book that brings together a wide range of methods used in the study of deliberative democracy. It offers thirty-one different methods that scholars use for theorizing, measuring, exploring, or applying deliberative democracy. Each chapter presents one method by explaining its utility in deliberative democracy research and providing guidance on its application by drawing on examples from prev…
Rhetorical Alignment between Political Campaign Discourse and Democratic Deliberation
The role of rhetoric in deliberation has received considerable attention in deliberative and rhetorical theory, but it is still unclear how non-deliberative rhetoric can work symbiotically with deliberative rhetoric within deliberative events. This essay builds on previous theorizing to better understand the potential for overlap between these two kinds of rhetoric. We introduce the concept of rhetorical alignment as a practice that interfaces no…
Meta-deliberation about congressional town hall meetings
Congressional town hall meetings are prominent political forums in the United States where constituents and members of Congress publicly converse on exigent policy issues, but they have seldom received scholarly attention. This study analyzes one aspect of congressional town halls: their contested meanings in public discourse. I conduct a rhetorical analysis of congressional town hall “meta-deliberation” through news articles, town hall videos, a…
The Washington Climate Assembly
In this essay, we use applied rhetorical criticism to analyze how facilitators navigate online deliberation in the Washington Climate Assembly, a public deliberation process held virtually in January and February 2021. We draw on interviews with organizers and facilitators and from observational notes taken by the research team during Assembly deliberations. This analysis focuses on the Assembly's online note-taking practices. Previous research h…
The Case for Using Generative AI to Run Deliberation Simulations
This is an accepted article with a DOI pre-assigned that is not yet published.Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI)language models, such as ChatGPT, Bloom, and Copilot, may offer transformativepossibilities for deliberative democracy. We argue that deliberation scholarsand practitioners should use GAI models to run deliberation simulations tocomplement existing deliberative processes. By simulations, we mean the use ofGAI software to run hypot…
‘I am going to be a cold robot on Zoom if I do that’
During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, Healthy Democracy, a nonpartisan civic organization in Oregon, convened the Oregon Citizens' Assembly Pilot on COVID-19 Recovery (ORCA), the first attempt in the United States to conduct a citizens' assembly entirely on a synchronous online video platform. This study examines the tensions ORCA facilitators experienced while facilitating in this new online environment. Drawing on Relational Dialect…
Sociology (8 works) · Political science (7 works) · Deliberation (6 works) · Rhetorical question (6 works) · Social Media and Politics (6 works) · Deliberative democracy (5 works) · Law (5 works) · Politics (5 works) · Rhetoric and Communication Studies (5 works) · Democracy (4 works)