Abstract
This article assesses the effects of deliberation and increased political knowledge on vote choice. The observed knowledge gains result from participation in a deliberative experiment in the context of second-order elections, which facilitates realistic estimates of information gains that can be expected if citizens were politically more engaged than they actually are. Using survey data on 333 participants in the deliberative experiment and 729 respondents from a control group, we find that deliberation is associated with significant changes in vote choice. Specifically, participating in the deliberative event is related to an increased likelihood of vote switching in favour of Green parties. However, there is no support for the expectation that changes in citizens’ party choices are related to the observed increase in political knowledge.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 352-371 |
| Number of pages | 20 |
| Journal | European Union Politics |
| Volume | 15 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| Early online date | 2 May 2014 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Sept 2014 |
Bibliographical note
AcknowledgementsA previous version of this article was presented to the panel on expert committees and deliberative processes at the 25th Congress of the German Political Science Association (DVPW), 24–28 September 2012, Tubingen. We thank the panel participants, Sebastian Popa and three anonymous reviewers for helpful comments.
Keywords
- Environment
- European Parliament
- experiment
- public opinion
- theoretical model and method