Scaling up Deliberation: Testing the Potential of Mini‐Publics to Enhance the Deliberative Capacity of Citizens

This paper tests the possibility of embedding the benefits of minipublic deliberation within a wider voting public. We test whether a statement such as those derived from a Citizens’ Initiative Review (CIR) can influence voters who did not participate in the pre‐referendum minipublic deliberation. T...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Swiss political science review 2020-09, Vol.26 (3), p.253-272
Main Authors: Suiter, Jane, Muradova, Lala, Gastil, John, Farrell, David M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
CIR
Citizen participation
Deliberation
mini‐publics
Polls & surveys
Referendum
Referendums
Respondents
Voters
Voting
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Summary:This paper tests the possibility of embedding the benefits of minipublic deliberation within a wider voting public. We test whether a statement such as those derived from a Citizens’ Initiative Review (CIR) can influence voters who did not participate in the pre‐referendum minipublic deliberation. This experiment was implemented in advance of the 2018 Irish referendum on blasphemy, one of a series of social‐moral referendums following the recommendations of a deliberative assembly. This is the first application of a CIR‐style voting aid in a real world minipublic and referendum outside of the US and also the first application to what is principally a moral question. We found that survey respondents exposed to information about the minipublic and its findings significantly increased their policy knowledge. Further, exposing respondents to minipublic statements in favour and against the policy measure increased their empathy for the other side of the policy debate.
ISSN:1424-7755
1662-6370
DOI:10.1111/spsr.12405