What occurs when mini audiences are held in a deeply divided place? Proof from Northern Eire –

What occurs when mini audiences are held in a deeply divided place? Proof from Northern Eire

By Jamie Pow and John Garry, Queen’s College Belfast

A pessimistic view of the potential of deliberative mini-publics to successfully contribute to democratic decision-making on extremely contested points in deeply divided locations argues that (1) deliberative high quality can be low due to the acrimony engendered by the dialogue of divisive points, and (2 ) ) the extent of opinion change can be low given the stubbornly persistent nature of political positions in shared areas. We empirically investigated this pessimistic view utilizing a quasi-experiment involving mini-publics on two separate points in Northern Eire: (1) the contentious ethno-national problem of Northern Eire’s constitutional standing, and (2) the a lot much less contentious and non-ethnic -national problem of social care. Opposite to the pessimistic view, we discover proof that, from the attitude of the contributors, the deliberative high quality was greater within the mini-public about an ethno-national problem. Nevertheless, in keeping with the pessimistic view, the extent of self-reported opinion change was considerably decrease within the ethno-national mini-public. General, the findings spotlight the potential of fastidiously designed deliberative mini-publics to handle divisive ethno-national points: they supply an area for contributors to interact with such points in open and respectful dialogue – even when the prospects for attitudinal change are extra restricted.