Research on scaling deliberative mini-publics
webCredibility Rating
High quality. Established institution or organization with editorial oversight and accountability.
Rating inherited from publication venue: SAGE Journals
Relevant to AI governance discussions about deliberative processes and citizens' assemblies as mechanisms for legitimate AI policy-making; highlights that procedural legitimacy depends heavily on whether outputs are honored by decision-makers.
Metadata
Summary
A pre-registered survey experiment in Ireland (N=1309) testing how deliberative mini-publics (citizens' assemblies) affect perceptions of democratic legitimacy. The study finds mini-publics enhance legitimacy perceptions among the broader citizenry, but these benefits largely disappear when their recommendations are not honored by decision-makers. Citizens with low political trust drive most of the legitimacy-enhancing effects.
Key Points
- •Mini-publics increase legitimacy perceptions among the broader public, but only when their non-binding recommendations are actually implemented.
- •It makes no significant difference whether recommendations are overturned by elected representatives or by referendum — both undermine legitimacy gains equally.
- •Legitimacy-enhancing effects are primarily driven by citizens who already have low political trust, suggesting mini-publics may help reconnect disaffected citizens.
- •The study uses a pre-registered experimental design, strengthening causal inference about mini-public effects on democratic legitimacy.
- •Findings have implications for scaling deliberative processes: institutional follow-through on recommendations is critical to realizing democratic benefits.
Cited by 1 page
| Page | Type | Quality |
|---|---|---|
| AI-Assisted Deliberation | Approach | 63.0 |
Cached Content Preview
# Scaling Up? Unpacking the Effect of Deliberative Mini-Publics on Legitimacy Perceptions Authors: Micha Germann, Sofie Marien, Lala Muradova Journal: Political Studies Published: 2024-05 DOI: 10.1177/00323217221137444 ## Abstract Deliberative mini-publics are increasingly used to try to tackle public discontent with the functioning of democracy. However, the ability of mini-publics to increase perceptions of legitimate decision-making among citizens at large remains unclear, given especially that existing studies have not considered the potentially damaging effects of mini-public recommendations not being followed. We designed, pre-registered, and ran a survey experiment in Ireland to test the effects of mini-publics on legitimacy perceptions conditional on whether or not their non-binding policy recommendations are honored ( N = 1309). We find that mini-publics increase legitimacy perceptions among the broader citizenry; however, these beneficial effects are largely limited to situations in which their recommendations are honored. Additional results suggest that it makes no difference whether mini-public recommendations are overturned by elected representatives or by citizens in a referendum. Finally, we find that the legitimacy-enhancing effects of participatory processes are driven by citizens with low political trust.
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