Maija Setälä
Biographic Data
| ID | 3486775 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Maija Setälä |
| GIVEN NAMES | Maija |
| FAMILY NAME | Setälä |
| SIGNATURE | SETÄLÄ M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Turku |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-9341-5584 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 37 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 677 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 37 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1998 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 15 |
Public trust in advisory mini-publics: The impact of recommendations and institutional design features
Deliberative mini-publics are among the most studied forms of citizen participation with an active global developer network. Mini-publics have shaped legislation and provided useful information for voters in many countries, but our knowledge on the public perceptions of these mechanisms remains ambiguous. The public generally trusts mini-publics, but often on different grounds than democratic theory expects. We ran a population-based survey exper…
Inclusive deliberation for future-regarding governance: Potentials and pitfalls
Arguably, representative democracies are prone to "wrongful short-termism". This article examines the potential of democratic deliberation to enhance future-regarding governance and to avoid wrongful short-termism. I distinguish between three different types of democratic deliberation-"Habermasian", integrative, and inclusive-and examine their relative strengths and weaknesses in terms of future-regarding governance. I argue that specific designs…
Mini‐Public's Statements and Media as Transmitters of Deliberative Judgments: A Field Experiment on a Citizens' Jury on Forest Policy
Deliberative mini‐publics have become commonplace in policymaking on complex issues such as climate policies. When assessing the macro‐political impacts of deliberative mini‐publics, it is important to examine how information about their procedures and outcomes is transmitted to the wider public. We conducted a field experiment to compare the effects of reading a mini‐public statement to those of reading mediated information on a mini‐public. Our…
Deliberative mini-publics
Deliberative mini-publics (DMPs) are democratic innovations through which a random sample of lay citizens are gathered to deliberate in small groups on political topics. There are various models for DMPs. This chapter presents the general idea behind DMPs together with their goals and characteristics, as well as discussing their ‘internal’ and ‘external’ effects. In other words, we review processes of taking part in DMPs and the effects of delibe…
The Politics of Non‐Existence
This article argues that the representation of future generations is likely to remain inadequate because of the lack of accountability mechanisms characteristic of representative relations among contemporaries. Two problems pertaining to the representation of future generations and their interests are distinguished, namely misrepresentation and negligence. Misrepresentation refers to ill-informed, biased, and purposive interpretations regarding t…
Can Deliberative Democracy Provide Remedies for Affective Polarisation
This article revisits the problems of electoral democracy, especially affective polarisation, from the perspective of the theory of deliberative democracy. Some authors representing ‘realist’ views of democracy have concluded that empirical findings regarding affective polarisation challenge not just the idea of representative democracy as responsive government but also the prospects for deliberative democracy. We point out certain problems and l…
Do populists want direct democracy? Examining how thick and thin populist attitudes are associated with the Finnish Citizens’ Initiative
Theoretical works suggest that populist attitudes are associated with demands for direct democracy in the form of referendums. However, it remains unclear how populist attitudes relate to other direct-democratic instruments such as citizens' initiatives. We therefore examine whether populist attitudes affect the attitudes toward the Citizens' Agenda Initiative (CI) in Finland with the help of the national election study from 2019 (n = 1598). We s…
Acceptability of mandatory vaccination: A survey experiment on the effects of thresholds and justifications
Mandatory vaccination mightseem like a straightforward solution for reaching a sufficient vaccine coverage during a pandemic. However, the effectiveness of mandatory vaccination is undermined if the public does not perceive such a compulsory policy as acceptable. We report a population-based survey experiment (n = 1,131), conducted in Finland, that addresses the effects that different ways of framing a mandatory vaccination program have on three …
Deliberative Mini-publics Facilitating Voter Knowledge and Judgement: Experience from a Finnish Local Referendum
This article examines the use of a Citizens’ Jury as a source of voter information in the context of a government-initiated (top-down) referendum. Several studies show the capacity of the Citizens’ Initiative Review (CIR) to enhance voters’ knowledge and capacity of judgement in ballot initiative processes. However, similar procedures have not been tested outside the U.S.A. or in the context of government-initiated referendums. Our case is a Citi…
Beyond polarization and selective trust: A Citizens’ Jury as a trusted source of information
In this article, we examine whether a deliberative mini-public can provide a trusted source of information in the context of a polarized referendum. Political polarization gives rise to selective distrust of those on the ‘other side’. The Citizens’ Jury on Referendum Options in Korsholm, Finland, was organized in conjunction with a polarized referendum on a municipal merger. Our analysis is based on a field experiment measuring the effects of rea…
Accountability as a Warrant for Trust: An Experiment on Sanctions and Justifications in a Trust Game
Accountability is present in many types of social relations; for example, the accountability of elected representatives to voters is the key characteristic of representative democracy. We distinguish between two institutional mechanisms of accountability, i.e., opportunity to punish and requirement of a justification, and examine the separate and combined effects of these mechanisms on individual behavior. For this purpose, we designed a decision…
Citizens’ intertemporal perspectives on municipal mergers and the role of deliberation for these
This article studies citizens' intertemporal opinions in the context of a proposed municipal merger in Finland in 2019. We ask how important citizens regard short- and long-term aspects of politics concerning the merger. Using a survey sent to a random sample of citizens (N = 320), we studied the impact of a Citizens' Jury on developing intertemporal opinions. This was done partially by tracing the development of intertemporal opinions of the jur…
Expert hearings in mini-publics: How does the field of expertise influence deliberation and its outcomes
One of key goals of deliberative mini-publics is to counteract expert domination in policymaking. Mini-publics can be expected to democratize expertise by providing citizens with good opportunities for weighing expert information. Yet, there are concerns about undue influence of experts even within mini-publics. We test these expectations by analysing data from an online mini-public organized in Finland in March 2021. The topic of deliberation wa…
Knowledge, Trust or Perspectives? A Causal Mediation Analysis of How a Citizens’ Jury Affected Voting Intentions in the General Public
Previous studies suggest that information from deliberative mini‐publics helps voters make informed and reflected judgements and act accordingly. Despite a growing body of literature, the causal mechanisms remain unclear. This study examines three causal mechanisms for affecting voting intentions in a referendum: 1) factual knowledge, 2) trusted information proxy, or 3) perspective‐taking of the opinions of others. The data come from a referendum…
Advisory, Collaborative and Scrutinizing Roles of Deliberative Mini-Publics
The normative point of departure in this article is that mini-publics can “complement” representative democracy only if they enhance inclusive processes of mutual justification among elected representatives who are responsible for public decisions. This article distinguishes three different roles of mini-publics in representative decision-making. Mini-publics can be 1) advisory when they provide input for collective will-formation in the represen…
Deliberative disagreement and compromise
Deliberative democracy entails a commitment to deciding political questions on their merits. To that end, people engage in an exchange of reasons in a shared endeavour to arrive at the right answer or the best judgement they can make in the circumstances. Of course, in practice a shared judgement may be impossible to reach. Yet while compromise may seem a natural way of dealing with the disagreement that deliberation leaves unresolved – for examp…
A Functionalist Approach to Democratic Innovations
This article argues that it is important to analyse different democratic innovations in terms of their functions in democratic systems. For example, while citizens’ initiatives have a role in agenda setting, practices of citizen deliberation should help collective will-formation and referendums facilitate collective decision making. The article provides a framework for the analysis of various instruments of direct, deliberative and participatoryd…
The crisis of democracy and the science of deliberation
Citizens can avoid polarization and make sound decisions
A Matter of Life or Death: A Survey Experiment on the Perceived Legitimacy of Political Decision-Making on Euthanasia
Most representative democracies seem to experience dwindling levels of legitimacy in the eyes of citizens. Nevertheless, it remains unclear what people want from parliamentary decision-making. In this study, we test the impact of outcome favourability, actor involvement and justifications on the perceived legitimacy of a parliamentary decision-making process on euthanasia in Finland. We do so with the help of a survey experiment (n = 1243), where…
Self-reported health and democratic innovations: The case of the citizens’ initiative in Finland
This study examines the association between self-reported health and the propensity for supporting citizens’ initiatives in Finland. Democratic innovations such as the citizens’ initiative provide novel ways for citizens to express their preferences, but whether people in poor health make use of such possibilities remains unclear. The data come from the Finnish National Election Study (FNES2015), a cross-sectional representative sample of the Fin…
Empathy in a Citizen Deliberation Experiment
Despite increased scholarly attention, there is still limited knowledge on how empathy works in democratic deliberation. This article examines the role of empathy in citizen deliberation with the help of a deliberative experiment on immigration. First, a random sample of citizens was surveyed regarding their opinions on immigration. Based on their opinions, they were then divided into a permissive or a non‐permissive enclave, and randomly assigne…
The Finnish Citizens’ Initiative: Towards Inclusive Agenda‐setting
This article examines whether the Citizens' Initiative (CI) in Finland has enhanced inclusion in processes of political agenda‐setting. Democratic innovations such as CIs have been proposed as a solution to the challenges facing Western democracies. CIs are expected to increase political inclusion by allowing citizens to set the political agenda and by mobilising otherwise marginalised or passive citizens. However, the empirical evidence on this …
What drives the polarisation and moderation of opinions? Evidence from a Finnish citizen deliberation experiment on immigration
In the study of deliberation, a largely under‐explored area is why some participants polarise their opinion after deliberation and why others moderate them. Opinion polarisation is usually considered a suspicious outcome of deliberation, while moderation is seen as a desirable one. This article takes issue with this view. Results from a Finnish deliberative experiment on immigration show that polarisers and moderators were not different in socioe…
Connecting deliberative mini‐publics to representative decision making
Despite some prominent critics, deliberative democrats tend to be optimistic about the potential of deliberative mini‐publics. However, the problem with current practices is that mini‐publics are typically used by officials on an ad hoc basis and that their policy impacts remain vague. Mini‐publics seem especially hard to integrate into representative decision making. There are a number of reasons for this, especially prevailing ideas of represen…
Does Enclave Deliberation Polarize Opinions
When like-minded people discuss with each other, i.e. engage in 'enclave deliberation', their opinions tend to become more extreme. This is called group polarization. A population-based experiment with a pre-test post-test design was conducted to analyze whether the norms and procedures of deliberation interfere with the mechanisms of group polarization. Based on a survey, people with either permissive or restrictive attitudes toward immigration …
Political Trust, Satisfaction and Voter Turnout
Deliberation and civic virtue: Lessons From a Citizen Deliberation Experiment
This article analyzes whether democratic deliberation enhances ‘civic virtues’ such as political knowledge, efficacy, trust, and preparedness for political and other collective action. The empirical analysis is based on an experiment held in November 2006 in Finland. The topic of this citizen deliberation experiment was nuclear power. Two treatments were enforced; half of the small groups made a decision through secret ballot, whereas the other h…
Connecting deliberative mini‐publics to representative decision making
Despite some prominent critics, deliberative democrats tend to be optimistic about the potential of deliberative mini‐publics. However, the problem with current practices is that mini‐publics are typically used by officials on an ad hoc basis and that their policy impacts remain vague. Mini‐publics seem especially hard to integrate into representative decision making. There are a number of reasons for this, especially prevailing ideas of represen…
Does Enclave Deliberation Polarize Opinions
When like-minded people discuss with each other, i.e. engage in 'enclave deliberation', their opinions tend to become more extreme. This is called group polarization. A population-based experiment with a pre-test post-test design was conducted to analyze whether the norms and procedures of deliberation interfere with the mechanisms of group polarization. Based on a survey, people with either permissive or restrictive attitudes toward immigration …
On the problems of responsibility and accountability in referendums
Supporters of representative democracy tend to be critical of referendums. They argue that referendums give citizens more responsibility for political decisions than they have either the capacity or the competence to take. Moreover, they argue that referendums may undermine representatives' accountability. In this article, these arguments about responsibility and accountability are analyzed in the light of normative theories of democracy, especia…
In Honest Officials We Trust: Institutional Confidence in Europe
This article analyzes trust in public institutions. In both theoretical literature and empirical research, a link between social trust and institutional trust has been established. Our aim is to cast additional light on this relationship. In particular, we test whether institutional trust is dependent on citizens’ perceptions of how well institutions live up to normative expectations held by the public. The focus on such normative expectations, s…
Citizen Deliberation on Nuclear Power: A Comparison of Two Decision-Making Methods
This article analyses the impact of decision-making methods on democratic deliberation. An experiment was designed to study the effects of two distinct decision-making methods. This citizen deliberation experiment took place in November 2006. The topic was: ‘Should a sixth nuclear power plant be built in Finland?’ A random sample of 2,500 people was first polled and invited to take part in the deliberation experiment. Eventually, 135 people took …
Referendums in Western Europe – A Wave of Direct Democracy
The aim of this article is to analyze the explanations for the increased number of referendums in Western European states. Bogdanor has explained this by the unfreezing of political alignments and institutions. After classifying referendums in 18 Western European states, it will be observed that especially the number of referendums introduced by citizens has increased wherever they are constitutionally provided, that is, in Italy and in Switzerla…
A Functionalist Approach to Democratic Innovations
This article argues that it is important to analyse different democratic innovations in terms of their functions in democratic systems. For example, while citizens’ initiatives have a role in agenda setting, practices of citizen deliberation should help collective will-formation and referendums facilitate collective decision making. The article provides a framework for the analysis of various instruments of direct, deliberative and participatoryd…
The Role of Deliberative Mini-Publics in Representative Democracy: Lessons From the Experience of Referendums
The article analyses and evaluates the use of deliberative mini-publics in the context of representative democracy. Based on an overview of the use of referendums and mini-publics, it is argued that the use of mini-publics has often been comparable with the use of ad hoc referendums. Some recommendations are made on how deliberative mini-publics should be used in representative democracies. In addition to the theory of deliberative democracy, the…
A Matter of Life or Death: A Survey Experiment on the Perceived Legitimacy of Political Decision-Making on Euthanasia
Most representative democracies seem to experience dwindling levels of legitimacy in the eyes of citizens. Nevertheless, it remains unclear what people want from parliamentary decision-making. In this study, we test the impact of outcome favourability, actor involvement and justifications on the perceived legitimacy of a parliamentary decision-making process on euthanasia in Finland. We do so with the help of a survey experiment (n = 1243), where…
The Finnish Citizens’ Initiative: Towards Inclusive Agenda‐setting
This article examines whether the Citizens' Initiative (CI) in Finland has enhanced inclusion in processes of political agenda‐setting. Democratic innovations such as CIs have been proposed as a solution to the challenges facing Western democracies. CIs are expected to increase political inclusion by allowing citizens to set the political agenda and by mobilising otherwise marginalised or passive citizens. However, the empirical evidence on this …
What drives the polarisation and moderation of opinions? Evidence from a Finnish citizen deliberation experiment on immigration
In the study of deliberation, a largely under‐explored area is why some participants polarise their opinion after deliberation and why others moderate them. Opinion polarisation is usually considered a suspicious outcome of deliberation, while moderation is seen as a desirable one. This article takes issue with this view. Results from a Finnish deliberative experiment on immigration show that polarisers and moderators were not different in socioe…
Deliberative Mini-publics Facilitating Voter Knowledge and Judgement: Experience from a Finnish Local Referendum
This article examines the use of a Citizens’ Jury as a source of voter information in the context of a government-initiated (top-down) referendum. Several studies show the capacity of the Citizens’ Initiative Review (CIR) to enhance voters’ knowledge and capacity of judgement in ballot initiative processes. However, similar procedures have not been tested outside the U.S.A. or in the context of government-initiated referendums. Our case is a Citi…
Beyond polarization and selective trust: A Citizens’ Jury as a trusted source of information
In this article, we examine whether a deliberative mini-public can provide a trusted source of information in the context of a polarized referendum. Political polarization gives rise to selective distrust of those on the ‘other side’. The Citizens’ Jury on Referendum Options in Korsholm, Finland, was organized in conjunction with a polarized referendum on a municipal merger. Our analysis is based on a field experiment measuring the effects of rea…
Empathy in a Citizen Deliberation Experiment
Despite increased scholarly attention, there is still limited knowledge on how empathy works in democratic deliberation. This article examines the role of empathy in citizen deliberation with the help of a deliberative experiment on immigration. First, a random sample of citizens was surveyed regarding their opinions on immigration. Based on their opinions, they were then divided into a permissive or a non‐permissive enclave, and randomly assigne…
Parliamentary websites: Theoretical and comparative perspectives
This article analyses the potentialities of parliamentary www-sites to enhance the publicity of decision-making in representative democracies. We introduce two different models that emphasize the role of publicity in representative systems. Jeremy Bentham argued that publicity is needed to enable citizens to control the acts of the representatives. From the perspective of Kantian tradition, recently developed by the theorists of deliberative demo…
Advisory, Collaborative and Scrutinizing Roles of Deliberative Mini-Publics
The normative point of departure in this article is that mini-publics can “complement” representative democracy only if they enhance inclusive processes of mutual justification among elected representatives who are responsible for public decisions. This article distinguishes three different roles of mini-publics in representative decision-making. Mini-publics can be 1) advisory when they provide input for collective will-formation in the represen…
National Referendums in European Democracies: Recent Developments
Despite much political and academic debate on referendums and initiatives, they are still exceptional events in the national‐level politics of most western European democracies. The numbers of government‐initiated referendums have remained relatively steady since the 1940s. More than half of government‐initiated referendums held since the 1970s have concerned issues related to European integration. However, the numbers of decision‐controlling ref…
Expert hearings in mini-publics: How does the field of expertise influence deliberation and its outcomes
One of key goals of deliberative mini-publics is to counteract expert domination in policymaking. Mini-publics can be expected to democratize expertise by providing citizens with good opportunities for weighing expert information. Yet, there are concerns about undue influence of experts even within mini-publics. We test these expectations by analysing data from an online mini-public organized in Finland in March 2021. The topic of deliberation wa…
Do populists want direct democracy? Examining how thick and thin populist attitudes are associated with the Finnish Citizens’ Initiative
Theoretical works suggest that populist attitudes are associated with demands for direct democracy in the form of referendums. However, it remains unclear how populist attitudes relate to other direct-democratic instruments such as citizens' initiatives. We therefore examine whether populist attitudes affect the attitudes toward the Citizens' Agenda Initiative (CI) in Finland with the help of the national election study from 2019 (n = 1598). We s…
Self-reported health and democratic innovations: The case of the citizens’ initiative in Finland
This study examines the association between self-reported health and the propensity for supporting citizens’ initiatives in Finland. Democratic innovations such as the citizens’ initiative provide novel ways for citizens to express their preferences, but whether people in poor health make use of such possibilities remains unclear. The data come from the Finnish National Election Study (FNES2015), a cross-sectional representative sample of the Fin…
Inclusive deliberation for future-regarding governance: Potentials and pitfalls
Arguably, representative democracies are prone to "wrongful short-termism". This article examines the potential of democratic deliberation to enhance future-regarding governance and to avoid wrongful short-termism. I distinguish between three different types of democratic deliberation-"Habermasian", integrative, and inclusive-and examine their relative strengths and weaknesses in terms of future-regarding governance. I argue that specific designs…
Knowledge, Trust or Perspectives? A Causal Mediation Analysis of How a Citizens’ Jury Affected Voting Intentions in the General Public
Previous studies suggest that information from deliberative mini‐publics helps voters make informed and reflected judgements and act accordingly. Despite a growing body of literature, the causal mechanisms remain unclear. This study examines three causal mechanisms for affecting voting intentions in a referendum: 1) factual knowledge, 2) trusted information proxy, or 3) perspective‐taking of the opinions of others. The data come from a referendum…
Deliberative disagreement and compromise
Deliberative democracy entails a commitment to deciding political questions on their merits. To that end, people engage in an exchange of reasons in a shared endeavour to arrive at the right answer or the best judgement they can make in the circumstances. Of course, in practice a shared judgement may be impossible to reach. Yet while compromise may seem a natural way of dealing with the disagreement that deliberation leaves unresolved – for examp…
Referendum, Agenda-Setting and Models of Democracy
Referendums in Western Europe – A Wave of Direct Democracy
The aim of this article is to analyze the explanations for the increased number of referendums in Western European states. Bogdanor has explained this by the unfreezing of political alignments and institutions. After classifying referendums in 18 Western European states, it will be observed that especially the number of referendums introduced by citizens has increased wherever they are constitutionally provided, that is, in Italy and in Switzerla…
National Referendums in European Democracies: Recent Developments
Despite much political and academic debate on referendums and initiatives, they are still exceptional events in the national‐level politics of most western European democracies. The numbers of government‐initiated referendums have remained relatively steady since the 1940s. More than half of government‐initiated referendums held since the 1970s have concerned issues related to European integration. However, the numbers of decision‐controlling ref…
On the problems of responsibility and accountability in referendums
Supporters of representative democracy tend to be critical of referendums. They argue that referendums give citizens more responsibility for political decisions than they have either the capacity or the competence to take. Moreover, they argue that referendums may undermine representatives' accountability. In this article, these arguments about responsibility and accountability are analyzed in the light of normative theories of democracy, especia…
Parliamentary websites: Theoretical and comparative perspectives
This article analyses the potentialities of parliamentary www-sites to enhance the publicity of decision-making in representative democracies. We introduce two different models that emphasize the role of publicity in representative systems. Jeremy Bentham argued that publicity is needed to enable citizens to control the acts of the representatives. From the perspective of Kantian tradition, recently developed by the theorists of deliberative demo…
Political Trust, Satisfaction and Voter Turnout
Rhetoric and Deliberative Democracy
Citizen Deliberation on Nuclear Power: A Comparison of Two Decision-Making Methods
This article analyses the impact of decision-making methods on democratic deliberation. An experiment was designed to study the effects of two distinct decision-making methods. This citizen deliberation experiment took place in November 2006. The topic was: ‘Should a sixth nuclear power plant be built in Finland?’ A random sample of 2,500 people was first polled and invited to take part in the deliberation experiment. Eventually, 135 people took …
Deliberation and civic virtue: Lessons From a Citizen Deliberation Experiment
This article analyzes whether democratic deliberation enhances ‘civic virtues’ such as political knowledge, efficacy, trust, and preparedness for political and other collective action. The empirical analysis is based on an experiment held in November 2006 in Finland. The topic of this citizen deliberation experiment was nuclear power. Two treatments were enforced; half of the small groups made a decision through secret ballot, whereas the other h…
In Honest Officials We Trust: Institutional Confidence in Europe
This article analyzes trust in public institutions. In both theoretical literature and empirical research, a link between social trust and institutional trust has been established. Our aim is to cast additional light on this relationship. In particular, we test whether institutional trust is dependent on citizens’ perceptions of how well institutions live up to normative expectations held by the public. The focus on such normative expectations, s…
The Role of Deliberative Mini-Publics in Representative Democracy: Lessons From the Experience of Referendums
The article analyses and evaluates the use of deliberative mini-publics in the context of representative democracy. Based on an overview of the use of referendums and mini-publics, it is argued that the use of mini-publics has often been comparable with the use of ad hoc referendums. Some recommendations are made on how deliberative mini-publics should be used in representative democracies. In addition to the theory of deliberative democracy, the…
Participatory Democratic Innovations in Europe: Improving the Quality of Democracy
Does Enclave Deliberation Polarize Opinions
When like-minded people discuss with each other, i.e. engage in 'enclave deliberation', their opinions tend to become more extreme. This is called group polarization. A population-based experiment with a pre-test post-test design was conducted to analyze whether the norms and procedures of deliberation interfere with the mechanisms of group polarization. Based on a survey, people with either permissive or restrictive attitudes toward immigration …
Empathy in a Citizen Deliberation Experiment
Despite increased scholarly attention, there is still limited knowledge on how empathy works in democratic deliberation. This article examines the role of empathy in citizen deliberation with the help of a deliberative experiment on immigration. First, a random sample of citizens was surveyed regarding their opinions on immigration. Based on their opinions, they were then divided into a permissive or a non‐permissive enclave, and randomly assigne…
The Finnish Citizens’ Initiative: Towards Inclusive Agenda‐setting
This article examines whether the Citizens' Initiative (CI) in Finland has enhanced inclusion in processes of political agenda‐setting. Democratic innovations such as CIs have been proposed as a solution to the challenges facing Western democracies. CIs are expected to increase political inclusion by allowing citizens to set the political agenda and by mobilising otherwise marginalised or passive citizens. However, the empirical evidence on this …
What drives the polarisation and moderation of opinions? Evidence from a Finnish citizen deliberation experiment on immigration
In the study of deliberation, a largely under‐explored area is why some participants polarise their opinion after deliberation and why others moderate them. Opinion polarisation is usually considered a suspicious outcome of deliberation, while moderation is seen as a desirable one. This article takes issue with this view. Results from a Finnish deliberative experiment on immigration show that polarisers and moderators were not different in socioe…
Connecting deliberative mini‐publics to representative decision making
Despite some prominent critics, deliberative democrats tend to be optimistic about the potential of deliberative mini‐publics. However, the problem with current practices is that mini‐publics are typically used by officials on an ad hoc basis and that their policy impacts remain vague. Mini‐publics seem especially hard to integrate into representative decision making. There are a number of reasons for this, especially prevailing ideas of represen…
Self-reported health and democratic innovations: The case of the citizens’ initiative in Finland
This study examines the association between self-reported health and the propensity for supporting citizens’ initiatives in Finland. Democratic innovations such as the citizens’ initiative provide novel ways for citizens to express their preferences, but whether people in poor health make use of such possibilities remains unclear. The data come from the Finnish National Election Study (FNES2015), a cross-sectional representative sample of the Fin…
The crisis of democracy and the science of deliberation
Citizens can avoid polarization and make sound decisions
A Matter of Life or Death: A Survey Experiment on the Perceived Legitimacy of Political Decision-Making on Euthanasia
Most representative democracies seem to experience dwindling levels of legitimacy in the eyes of citizens. Nevertheless, it remains unclear what people want from parliamentary decision-making. In this study, we test the impact of outcome favourability, actor involvement and justifications on the perceived legitimacy of a parliamentary decision-making process on euthanasia in Finland. We do so with the help of a survey experiment (n = 1243), where…
Deliberative disagreement and compromise
Deliberative democracy entails a commitment to deciding political questions on their merits. To that end, people engage in an exchange of reasons in a shared endeavour to arrive at the right answer or the best judgement they can make in the circumstances. Of course, in practice a shared judgement may be impossible to reach. Yet while compromise may seem a natural way of dealing with the disagreement that deliberation leaves unresolved – for examp…
A Functionalist Approach to Democratic Innovations
This article argues that it is important to analyse different democratic innovations in terms of their functions in democratic systems. For example, while citizens’ initiatives have a role in agenda setting, practices of citizen deliberation should help collective will-formation and referendums facilitate collective decision making. The article provides a framework for the analysis of various instruments of direct, deliberative and participatoryd…
Advisory, Collaborative and Scrutinizing Roles of Deliberative Mini-Publics
The normative point of departure in this article is that mini-publics can “complement” representative democracy only if they enhance inclusive processes of mutual justification among elected representatives who are responsible for public decisions. This article distinguishes three different roles of mini-publics in representative decision-making. Mini-publics can be 1) advisory when they provide input for collective will-formation in the represen…
Accountability as a Warrant for Trust: An Experiment on Sanctions and Justifications in a Trust Game
Accountability is present in many types of social relations; for example, the accountability of elected representatives to voters is the key characteristic of representative democracy. We distinguish between two institutional mechanisms of accountability, i.e., opportunity to punish and requirement of a justification, and examine the separate and combined effects of these mechanisms on individual behavior. For this purpose, we designed a decision…
Citizens’ intertemporal perspectives on municipal mergers and the role of deliberation for these
This article studies citizens' intertemporal opinions in the context of a proposed municipal merger in Finland in 2019. We ask how important citizens regard short- and long-term aspects of politics concerning the merger. Using a survey sent to a random sample of citizens (N = 320), we studied the impact of a Citizens' Jury on developing intertemporal opinions. This was done partially by tracing the development of intertemporal opinions of the jur…
Political science (35 works) · Law (34 works) · Law (29 works) · Politics (29 works) · Sociology (22 works) · Democracy (20 works) · Social Media and Politics (20 works) · Electoral Systems and Political Participation (16 works) · Deliberation (13 works) · Public Administration (13 works)