Deliberative Mini-Publics Involving Citizens in the Democratic Process Edited by Kimmo Grönlund, André Bächtiger and Maija Setälä
Kimmo Grönlund, André Bächtiger and Maija Setälä 2014 First published by the ECPR Press in 2014 The ECPR Press is the publishing imprint of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR), a scholarly association, which supports and encourages the training, research and cross-national cooperation of political scientists in institutions throughout Europe and beyond. ECPR Press University of Essex Wivenhoe Park Colchester CO4 3SQ UK All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Typeset by ECPR Press Printed and bound by Lightning Source British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Hardback ISBN: 978-1-907301-32-2 www.ecpr.eu/ecprpress
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Contents List of Figures and Tables List of Abbreviations Contributors Foreword by John Dryzek Preface vii viii ix xiii xv Chapter One: Introduction 1 Kimmo Grönlund, André Bächtiger and Maija Setälä Chapter Two: Defining Mini-Publics 9 Matthew Ryan and Graham Smith Chapter Three: Deliberative Democracy in Context: Reflections on Theory and Practice 27 James S. Fishkin Chapter Four: What Would Dahl Say?: An Appraisal of the Democratic Credentials of Deliberative Polls and Other Mini-Publics 41 Ian O Flynn and Gaurav Sood Chapter Five: Normative Theory and Experimental Research in the Study of Deliberative Mini-Publics 59 Maija Setälä and Kaisa Herne Chapter Six: Facilitating Deliberation: The Role of Impartial Intermediaries in Deliberative Mini-Publics 77 Claudia Landwehr Chapter Seven: Online Deliberation: Theory and Practice in Virtual Mini-Publics 93 Kim Strandberg and Kimmo Grönlund Chapter Eight: Gentlemanly Conversation or Vigorous Contestation?: An Exploratory Analysis of Communication Modes in a Transnational Deliberative Poll (Europolis) 115 André Bächtiger and Marlène Gerber
vi Deliberative Mini-Publics Chapter Nine: Deliberative Democracy in Divided Belgium: An Alternative for a Democracy on the Edge? 135 Didier Caluwaerts and Dimokritos Kavadias Chapter Ten: Participant Bias and Success in Deliberative Mini-Publics 157 Michael E. Morrell Chapter Eleven: Scaling Up Deliberation to Mass Publics: Harnessing Mini-Publics in a Deliberative System 177 Simon Niemeyer Chapter Twelve: Deliberative Democracy and Framing Effects: Why Frames are a Problem and How Deliberative Mini-Publics Might Overcome Them 203 Aubin Calvert and Mark E. Warren Chapter Thirteen: Towards a New Era of Deliberative Mini-Publics 225 André Bächtiger, Maija Setälä and Kimmo Grönlund Index 247
List of Figures and Tables Tables Text box 2.1: Definitions of mini-publics 12 Table 3.1: Four democratic theories 28 Table 7.1: The experiments in online deliberation included in the review 95 Table 7.2: Preconditions of online deliberations: summary of observations 98 Table 7.3: Designs of online deliberations: summary of observations 102 Table 7.4: Outcomes of online deliberations: summary of observations 106 Table 8.1: Agreement, disagreement, and neutral speech in four Europolis discussion groups 125 Table 8.2: Communication styles in four Europolis discussion groups 125 Table 8.3: Direct confrontational exchanges in four Europolis discussion groups 126 Table 9.1: Absolute and relative frequency distribution for the Discourse Quality Items 143 Table 9.2: Mokken-scale analysis on DQI-items: difficulty, homogeneity, Z-value and scale characteristics 145 Table 9.3: Multilevel analysis: DQI-6 in function of composition and rules 148 Table 9.4: Multilevel analysis of interaction between group composition and rules on DQI-6 scale 150 Table 10.1: Threat of participant bias to deliberative outcomes 162 Table 11.1: System components (economics and deliberative democracy) 181 Table 12.1: Framing effects that undermine deliberation 211 Table 12.2: Designing mini-publics to counter problematic framing effects 218