Deliberative democracy, elite politics and electoral reform

Abstract

Many advanced liberal democracies exhibit 'democracy deserts' in which high levels of social exclusion among large sections of the population are compounded by low levels of democratic engagement. How to reverse declining levels of electoral participation and widespread public disenchantment with politics therefore forms a defining element of contemporary comparative politics. It is in this context that the processes and methods associated with 'deliberative democracy' have become significant. Whereas most research in this field has focused on experiments at the local or community level, this article utilises a comparative case-study approach to examine the recent use of deliberative mechanisms in relation to constitutional issues. By comparing the establishment of citizen's assemblies with varying powers to review and make recommendations on electoral reform in the Canadian province of British Columbia and in the Netherlands and then contrasting this with a polity where a highly-majoritarian elite has reneged on pre-election commitments to review the electoral system (the United Kingdom), this article contributes a distinctive perspective to broader debates on public disengagement, deliberative democracy, political geography, majoritarian modification and electoral reform.

The politics and management of public expectations: Gaps, vacuums, clouding and the 2012 mayoral referenda

“…In this context, the rational response may well be not to overinflate public expectations but to actually create an 'expectation vacuum' or provoke dissent through 'expectation clouding' as a way of indirectly immobilising that policy. Such situations are arguably more likely to occur within coalitions when parties are required to support policies that were not in their own manifesto but have now become a concession in coalition negotiations; or on those rare occasions when a party leader becomes an advocate of a policy but without the broad backing and support of his or her party (Gordon Campbell's personal strong support for electoral reform in British Columbia when Leader of the Liberal Party between 2001 and 2011, for example (for more, see Flinders and Curry, 2009)). Such possibilities pose a range of questions for those seeking to examine the conceptual phenomena outlined in this article, showing that 'vacuums' and 'clouding' can arise for a variety of reasons.…”

Contrasting Views of Citizens’ Assemblies: Stakeholder Perceptions of Public Deliberation on Climate Change

“…With many governments reluctant to divest from fossilfuels or risk reductions in economic growth, there has been a burgeoning interest at sub-national levels (e.g., cities and regions) in the role that mini-public deliberation might play in building a social mandate for action on climate change (Howarth et al, 2020). The interest in deliberative public engagement has also grown in the context of increasing disenchantment with 'formal' politics and elected politicians (Flinders & Curry, 2008;Smith, 2009;Stoker, 2006), as well as political polarisation and the spread of misinformation (Farrell et al, 2019). Deliberation by mini-publics is contended to overcome many of the difficulties associated with political engagement through social media (Dryzek et al, 2019), notably an emphasis upon argumentative complexity, civility, listening, mutual respect and openness to persuasion.…”

Spanning the boundaries between policy, politics and science to solve wicked problems: policy pilots, deliberation fora and policy labs

“…First, policy deliberation fora bring together a group of people, randomly selected and intended to be representative of a population, to enable mutual learning and generate policy recommendations based on information provided by experts. Their main aim is to enhance citizen engagement with policy problems and to develop “alternative arguments with an open mind” (Niemeyer 2013 , 435) in a context of increasing dissatisfaction with representative democracy (Flinders and Curry 2008 ), political polarisation and the difficulties of political engagement in the age of social media (Dryzek et al 2019 ). They engage citizens in informed agenda setting and policy formulation (Duvic-Paoli 2022 ).…”