Two-way street

Politicians’ participation in a deliberative mini-public

Authors

• Mikko Värttö Tampereen yliopisto
• Maija Jäske Åbo Akademi
• Kaisa Herne Tampereen yliopisto
• Kimmo Grönlund Åbo Akademi

DOI: https://doi.org/10.37452/politiikka.98388

Keywords:

deliberative democracy, deliberative mini-public, democratic innovations, urban planning, scenarios

Abstract

Democracy scholars are currently trying to develop models for connecting deliberative mini-publics with the institutions of electoral democracy. One proposal is involving elected represen- tatives in mini-public deliberations with citizens. It has been argued that the involvement of politicians may boost the impact of mini-publics but there is not yet much research on the matter.

We designed a deliberative mini-public engaging politicians in half of the small groups in a Finnish city, Turku/Åbo. The participants deliberated on three expert scenarios for the traffic arrangements in the city. The aim of this study is to examine how councillors’ participation influenced deliberations. We also study councillors’ experiences of deliberation and their attitudes toward citizens’ public engagement in general. The study uses interviews of 11 councillors who participated in the mini-public as well as councillors’ (N=17) and citizens’ answers to a post deliberation survey (N=171).

The results indicate that the involvement of councillors did not have a negative impact on deliberations. The mini-public provided councillors with new ways to listen and understand the needs and concerns of citizens. Furthermore, it increased councillors’ understanding and appreciation of citizens’ knowledge and competence. The councillors felt positive about using mini-publics in the context of democratic decision-making.