When do deliberative citizens change their opinions? Evidence from the Irish Citizens’ Assembly
Abstract
Many claims have been made for the impact of deliberative democracy in generating change in people’s opinions, and often in predictable ways. It is claimed that people involved in deliberation change their minds on important issues. We also know that political participation and attitudes towards certain issues depend on political knowledge and civic education. To what extent are these linked? Do certain types of people react differently to their involvement in deliberation and is opinion change contingent on the varying capacities and knowledge of participants? Using data from a nationwide exercise in deliberative democracy carried out in Ireland we find some evidence that the ‘deliberative’ citizen, or at least the citizen most likely to shift opinion following deliberation, is under 65, with median levels of knowledge. We also find that heterogeneous groups are important for deliberation to be effective.
Get full access to this article
View all access and purchase options for this article.
References
Alwin Duane F, Cohen Ronald L, Newcomb Theodore M (1991) Aging, personality and social change: Attitude persistence and change over the lifespan. Madison: University of Winsconsin Press.
Barabas Jason (2004) How deliberation affects policy opinions. American Political Science Review 98(4): 687–701.
Bohner Gerd, Dickel Nina (2011) Attitudes and attitude change. Annual Review of Psychology 62(1): 391–417.
Briñol Pablo, Petty Richard E (2005). Individual differences in persuasion. In: Johnson Dolores Albarracín Blair T, Zanna Mark P (eds) The handbook of attitudes and attitude change. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 575–616.
Brown Roger (1986) Social Psychology: The Second Edition. New York: The Free Press.
Bizer George Y (2004). Attitudes. In: Spielberger Charles (ed.), Encyclopedia of Applied Psychology. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Cacioppo John T, Petty Richard E (1980) Sex differences in influenceability: Toward Specifying the underlying processes. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 6(4): 651–656.
Chambers Simone (1996) Reasonable Democracy. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Chambers Simone (2003) Deliberative democratic theory. Annual Review of Political Science 6(1): 307–326.
Delli Carpini Michael X, Cook Fay Lomax, Jacobs Lawrence R (2004) Public Deliberations, Discursive Participation and Citizen Engagement: A Review of the Empirical Literature. Departmental Papers, Annenburg School of Communication 1-1-2004.
Digman John M (1990) Personality structure: Emergence of the Five-Factor Model. Annual Review of Psychology 41(1): 417–440.
Dryzek John (2009) Democratization as deliberative capacity building. Comparative Political Studies 42(11): 1379–1402.
Dryzek John S, Braithwaite Valerie (2000) On the Prospects for Democratic Deliberation: Values Analysis Applied to Australian Politics. Political Psychology 21(2): 241–266.
Elster Jon (1997) The Market and the Forum: Three Varieties of Political Theory. In: Bohman James, Rheg William (eds), Deliberative Democracy. Essays on Reason and Politics, Cambridge: MIT Press, 3–34.
Eveland William P, Thompson Tiffany (2006) Is it talking, thinking or both? A lagged dependent variable model of discussion effects on political knowledge. Journal of Communication 56 (3): 523–542.
Farrell David M (2013) Deliberative democracy Irish-style: Ireland’s Constitutional Convention of 2013. Inroads 34(1): 110–117.
Farrell David M (2014). ‘Stripped down’ or reconfigured democracy. West European Politics 37(2): 439–455.
Farrell David M, O’Malley Eoin, Suiter Jane (2013) Deliberative democracy in Action Irish-style: The 2011 We The Citizens Pilot Citizens’ Assembly. Irish Political Studies 28(1): 99–113.
Fishkin James, Luskin Robert (1999) Bringing deliberation to the democratic dialogue. In: McCombs Maxwell, Reynolds Amy (eds) A Poll with a Human Face: The National Issues Convention Experiment in Political Communication. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 3–38.
Fishkin James (2009) When the People Speak: Deliberative Democracy and Public Consultation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Flynn Francis J (2005) Having an open mind: The impact of openness to experience on interracial attitudes and impression formation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 88(5): 816–826.
Fournier Patrick, Kolk Henk van der, Carty Ken, et al. (2011) When Citizens Decide: Lessons from Citizen Assemblies on Electoral Reform. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Gaertner Samuel L, Dovidio John F, Nier Jason, et al. (1999a) Across cultural divides: The value of a superordinate identity. In: Prentice Deborah A, Miller Dale T (eds) Cultural Divides: Understanding and Overcoming Group Conflict. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 173–212.
Gaertner Samuel L, Dovidio John F, Rust Mary C, et al. (1999b) Reducing intergroup bias: Elements of intergroup cooperation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 76(3): 388–402.
Galston William (2001) Political knowledge, political engagement, and civic education. Annual Review Political Science 4(1): 217–234.
George Jennifer, Zhou Jing (2001) When openness to experience and conscientiousness are related to creative behavior: An interactional approach. Journal of Applied Psychology 86(3): 513–524.
Himmelroos Staffan, Christensen Henrik Serup (2012) Deliberative Capacity and Opinion Change – Evidence from a Deliberative Mini-public, Political Studies Association Annual International Conference in Belfast, 3–5 April.
John Oliver P (1990) The ‘Big Five’ factor taxonomy: Dimensions of personality in the natural language and in questionnaires. In Pervin Lawrence A (ed.) Handbook of Personality: Theory and Practice. New
Kenski Kate, Jamieson Kathleen Hall (2000) The Gap in Political Knowledge: Are Women Less Knowledgeable Than Men About Politics? In: Jamieson Kathleen Hall (ed) Everything You Think You Know About Politics . . . And Why You’re Wrong. New York: Basic Books.
Lauriola Marco, Levine Irwin P (2001) Personality traits and risky decision making in a controlled experimental task: An exploratory study. Personality and Individual Differences 31(2): 215–226.
Luskin Robert, Fishkin James, Jowell Roger (2002) Considered opinions: deliberative polling in Britain. British Journal of Political Science 32(3): 455–487.
Mackie Gerry (2006) Does democratic deliberation change minds ? Politics, Philosophy & Economics 5(3): 279–303.
McCrae Robert (1987) Creativity, divergent thinking, and openness to experience. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 52(6): 1258–1265.
McCrae Robert (1996) Social consequences of experiential openness. Psychological Bulletin 120(3): 323–337.
McCrae Robert R, Costa Paul T Jr (1997) Conceptions and correlates of openness to experience. In: Hogan Robert, Johnson John (eds) Handbook of Personality Psychology. San Diego, CA: Academic Press, 836–849.
Mendelberg Tali (2002) The deliberative citizen: Theory and evidence. In: Delli Carpini Michael X, Huddy Leonie, Shapiro Robert Y (eds) Political Decision Making, Deliberation and Participation: Research in Micropolitics, Volume 6. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, 511–558.
Miller Joanne, Krosnick Jon (2000) News media impact on the ingredients of presidential evaluations: Politically knowledgeable citizens are guided by a trusted source. American Journal of Political Science 44(2): 295–309.
Mondak Jeffrey J, Anderson Mary R (2004) The Knowledge Gap: A Reexamination of Gender-Based Differences in Political Knowledge. Journal of Politics 66(2): 492–512.
Muhlberger Peter, Weber Lori M (2006) Lessons from the Virtual Agora Project: The Effects of Agency, Identity, Information, and Deliberation on Political Knowledge. Journal of Public Deliberation 2(1): 13. Available at: http://www.publicdeliberation.net/jpd/vol2/iss1/art13
Mutz Diana (2006) Hearing the Other Side: Deliberative vs Participatory Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Myers David G, Lamm Helmut (1975) The polarizing effects of group discussion American Scientist 63: 297–303. (Reprinted in Irving L Janis (ed) Current Trends in Psychology. Los Altos, CA: William Kaufman, 1977).
Myers David G, Bishop George D (1970) Discussion effects on racial attitudes Science 169(3947): 778–779.
Norrander Barbara (1999) The Evolution of the Gender Gap Public Opinion Quarterly 63(4): 566–576.
Pomerantz Eva M, Chaiken Shelly, Tordesillas Rosalind S (1995) Attitude Strength and Resistance Processes, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 69(3): 408–419.
Popkin Samuel L, Dimock Michael A (2000) Knowledge, trust, and international reasoning. In Lupia Arthur, McCubbins Matthew, Popkin Samuel L (eds) Elements of Reason: Cognition, Choice, and the Bounds of Rationality. New York: Cambridge University Press, 214–238.
Posner Richard A (2003) Law, Pragmatism, and Democracy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Ryfe David M (2005) Does deliberative democracy work? Annual Review of Political Science 8(1): 49–71.
Sanders Lynn (1997) Against deliberation. Political Theory 25(3): 347–376.
Setälä Maija, Grönlund Kimmo, Herne Kaisa (2010) Citizen deliberation on nuclear power: A comparison of two decision-making methods. Political Studies 58(4): 688–714.
Shapiro Robert Y, Mahajan Harpreet (1986) Gender Differences in Policy Preferences: A Summary of Trends from the 1960s and 1980s Public Opinion Quarterly 50(1): 42– 61.
Sistrunk Frank, McDavid John W (1971) Sex variable in conformity behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 17(2): 200–207.
Sniderman Paul, Brody Richard, Tetlock Philip (1991) Reasoning and Choice: Explorations in Political Psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Stasser Garold, Stewart Dennis (1992) Discovery of hidden profiles by decision-making groups: Solving a problem versus making a judgment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 63(3): 426–434.
Steenbergen Marco R, Bächtiger Andre, Spörndli Marcus, et al. (2003) Measuring political deliberation: A discourse quality index. Comparative European Politics 1(1): 21–48.
Steiner Jorg (2012) The Foundations of Deliberative Democracy: Empirical Research and Normative Implications. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sulkin Tracy, Adam Simon F (2001) Habermas in the lab: A study of deliberation in an experimental setting. Political Psychology 22(4): 809–826.
Sunstein Cass R (2000) Deliberative trouble? Why groups go to extremes. The Yale Law Journal 110(1): 71–119.
Sunstein Cass R (2005). Group judgments: Statistical means, deliberation, and information markets. New York University Law Review 80(3): 962–1049.
Sunstein Cass R (2009) Going to Extremes: How Like Minds Unite and Divide. New York: Oxford University Press.
Sunstein Cass R, Payne John, Schkade David, et al. (2003) Punitive Damages: How Juries Decide. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Visser Penny S, Holbrook Allyson L, Krosnick Jon A (2008) Knowledge and attitudes. In Donsbach Wolfgang, Traugott Michael W (eds) Handbook of Public Opinion Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 127–140.
We the Citizens (2011) Participatory Democracy in Action: A Pilot. Dublin: Atlantic Philanthropies. Available at: http://www.atlanticphilanthropies.org/sites/default/files/uploads/We-the-Citizens-2011-FINAL.pdf.
Whitley Bernard E (1999) Right-wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation and prejudice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 77(1): 126–134.
Zaller John (1990) Political awareness, elite opinion leadership and the mass survey response. Social Cognition 8(1): 125–153.
Biographies
Jane Suiter is a lecturer at the School of Communications, Dublin City University. A specialist in political communication and campaigns she was the deputy research director of the Irish Constitutional Convention.
David Farrell holds the Chair of Politics at University College Dublin. A specialist in parties, electoral systems and representation, his most recent book was the award-winning Political Parties and Democratic Linkage, published by Oxford University Press in 2011. He was the research director of the Irish Constitutional Convention.
Eoin O’Malley is senior lecturer in political science at School of Law and Government, Dublin City University. He has published over 30 journal articles mainly on questions relating to Irish politics. He is author of Contemporary Ireland (Palgrave 2011) and co-editor of Governing Ireland (IPA 2012).
