Limitations on group size
From Deliberative Democracy Institiute Wiki
The problem of coordination: This problem say that as the number of group members rise, the number of coordinations are getting larger exponentially, thus causing large groups to be inefficient, unless some measures are taken to reduce communication lines.
The problem of familiarity: to produce efficient deliberation, members has to have some knowledge on the way other members in the group think. Familiarity also help to create feeling of safety in the group, thus lowering the level of anxiety and enabling more use in system 2 for learning and advancing.
The problem of over-flow of information: when too much information from other members in the group is running, members will have hard time processing the information. Thus, large groups with free deliberation settings, will cause members to loose track of the conversation.
Small groups have the potential to be more democratic then large groups
- "A persuasive argument to classical Greeks as well as to many modern democrats is that smaller systems at least hold out the theoretical poten- tial for greater citizen effectiveness than larger systems..."[1]
References
- ↑ Dahl, R. A. (1994). A democratic dilemma: system effectiveness versus citizen participation. Political Science Quarterly, 109(1), 23–34. (p. 28)