The constantly growing number of global challenges require social innovation, and the development of new technologies means that although deliberation is beginning to gain in importance, it does not easily coexist with public policies. However, it is indisputable that shared knowledge and digital tools can ensure that more voices are heard than ever before. Recent years have proven that we live in an era of reforms. We observe this both internationally and nationally. However, reforms and public policies programmed and implemented, even if they are a response to global challenges, gain little social legitimacy. This is because the feature of the public sector is a conservative approach to the principles of functioning of institutions, which eliminates the doctrine of “philosophy/policy of change”. Therefore, many areas of the public sphere escape structural transformation, and if necessary, decision-makers resort to traditional methods – procedural, institutional, prescriptive – forcing compliance with the change by law. Then a wall of distrust is created between the government and society.

The rules for creating public policies have been an issue that has been studied for decades. In Poland, the process of programming public policies and carrying out reforms is subject to the adoption of normative acts (in the soft dimension: strategies and policies, in the hard dimension: laws, regulations). This process is formalized and regulated by law. However, highly professional (autonomous) fields, including: higher education, justice, economy, social issues require taking into account the opinions of change stakeholders. But even if this happens, formally these consultations often have a façade character. Undertaking research on deliberation and its place in the public policy cycle is the result of the observation that when creating reforms, decision-makers have developed the principle of “influencing behavior”. This is very visible in the deep social polarization that disconnects public decision-makers from society. Therefore, it is worth exploring the possibilities of expanding the conditions for innovative models of public participation in decisions of public authorities. All the more so because the realistic model of deliberation assumes a transition from description to action, emphasizing the activating, participatory role in socio-economic and political transformations.

Knowledge-based politics are an issue related to the participatory-deliberative model of creating changes in the public sphere. This is related to the postulate of breaking with the nonchalance of the authorities, which, in exchange for voter support, are willing to implement policies and programs that threaten, on the one hand, the stability of public finances, and on the other hand, strengthen the paternalistic dependence of citizens on the state. Striving to maintain a balance between the costs of politics and socio-economic effects in the conditions of diversity of social life requires basing decisions and actions on reliable and useful knowledge. In Poland, the degree and scope of use of this approach in the public sector is still unsatisfactory and, moreover, seems to be limited in recent years. However, rational arguments are increasingly replaced by purely ideological ones and motivated by strong social emotions. Perhaps that is why in Poland deliberation has never systematically appeared in strategically planned reforms, because social consultations, even reinforced with specialist knowledge, are rarely the goal of the administration and political decision-makers. This situation is also favored by the centralized model adopted in public institutions, which, even under democratic principles, due to its highly politically sensitive content, led to apparent social participation in consulting the proposed changes.

Due to the phenomena described, deliberation should become increasingly important, because although it assumes formalized, but nonetheless broad and real social participation. Additionally, this is facilitated by the diversity of political practices and the increasing number of challenges and issues that require innovation and a new approach in order to break the logic of confrontation between the government and the social environment affected by the change. Deliberation enhances the sense of agency because social preferences are previously recognized. Co-participation in the decision-making process of those whose lives these decisions affect increases the level of legitimacy, acceptance and, consequently, increases effectiveness, which may lead to breaking the impasse of distrust and the logic of confrontation between the authorities and society.