Puntaroituja äänestyspäätöksiä?
Kuntaliitoskysymyksen käsittely Mustasaaren kansalaisraadissa
Keywords:
Kansalaisraati, Deliberaatio, kuntaliitos, kansanäänestysAbstract
In February 2019, a citizens’ jury on referendum options was organized in Korsholm in conjunction with the municipal referendum concerning a merger plan with Vaasa. In the bilingual jury, 21 participants deliberated for four days and prepared a statement which was then mailed to voters. This article analyzes whether the jury succeeded in deliberation by looking at three criteria: democratic performance, analytical rigor and the quality of the statement as well as and external impacts. The analysis utilizes three different sets data: participant surveys, a survey experiment and post-referendum survey. The jury’s composition was demographically diverse and most participants could follow the discussions without problems. Participants also found moderators to be impartial. Participants learned much about the merger and also reported that they often reflected on viewpoints other than their own. Partly due to the regional media coverage, people were familiar with the jury and, according to the last survey, majority of voters read the statement. Reading the statement increased factual knowledge and also affected merger attitudes. These findings are in line with previous studies regarding similar processes, which suggests that this kind of Citizens’ Juries could be used to help citizens make a considered voting decisions also in the Finnish context.
