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Deliberative Democracy

Theories of Knowledge, Psychology, Deliberation and Government

By Tal Yaron



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This site was written by a non-English speaking writer. Any help in improving the readbility will be much appreciated.Tal Yaron 02:19, 30 December 2012 (IST)

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This page is a stub. It is not ready for publication and is used to aggregate information about a subject. You can add further reading and add information to the page. If you want to prepare this page for publication please consults with the creator of this page.
Tal Yaron 10:26, 9 July 2014 (IDT)

Why do we need a Framework for Deliberation

The theory of deliberation has so far defied a strong connection with empirical research. There are two main reasons for this: the lack of conceptual clarity specifying which types of discussions classify as the deliberative type, and the confusion between the causes and the consequences of deliberation.

Much of the literature on deliberation derives from disagreements over the necessary and sufficient conditions that are required for deliberation to take place[1]. Without these conditions, deliberation is a moving target: it is difficult to match with any particular instance of public discussion, and it can always be argued that some crucial element is missing that disqualifies the entire empirical approach. The problem with this lack of conceptual clarity is not only that it goes against the basic principle of scientific refutability, hampering the development of the theory, but also that it blurs the boundaries between the definition of deliberation and its evaluation[2]. Empirical approaches to political deliberation can help develop the theory by, first, turning the normative assumptions into testable hypotheses and, second, progressively identifying a set of necessary conditions required todistinguish deliberation from other types of discussions[3].

Goals of this Framework

While writing a research proposal, I have developed a framework for analyzing delibration. This proposition aim to give a detailed account of deliberation. The framework is built from three components. The first element is "eight cornerstones of deliberation": Shared knowledge, options, evaluation of options, Synthesis of options. Cycle of improving options, selection, implementation and learning from implementation.

The second component is the "factors affecting deliberation". Here there are dozens of factors that we know that have an impact on deliberation.

The third component is the "values deliberation". Series of public values ​​that are important for promoting democracy. Including equal participation, faslifiable and deep knowledge, efficiency of deliberation, moral values and implemenataion of decisions.

We will use this framework to explore and improve deliberation.

Contents

Why do we need deliberation?

Deliberation may be the most important field of research humankind will engage in the 21th century. Deliberation is so important, because every group of people as small as a group composed of two people, like a couple, to groups as large as hounderds of milions, like states, needs to find solutions that will help their members prosper. To prosper, all groups have to arrive at the best solutions available in their current situation. Deliberation is a field of research that engages the ways people can work together, with corroborated knoweldge to pursuit the best solutions. If we will understand how to promote together the best solution through agreements, we will find ways to bring prosperity to wider population, and we may also bring more peace among nations.

Values of Deliberation

Equal Participation

Deliberative theory underlies the notion of ‘strong democracy’ whereby representative institutions should be supplanted by more participatory ones in order to realise the principle of self-government[4][5][6][7]

Bias of Deliberation

in many cases of online discussions there is a tedency of domination by a minority of people which is bias for deliberation[8][9][10][11][12].

Level of Participation

See Robert Dahal....

Better informed participents

There are situations in which some citizens are simply better informed that justify an extended participation.

Decision Makers

In the case where politicians participate it is normal that the discussion tends to revolve around them, since it is a rare opportunity for participants at the forum to discuss directly with their representatives. The survey realized by Jankowsky and van Selm on the participants indicate that “Although debate appeared to be dominated by the few, participants appreciated the debate…”[13].

Falsification

Rawls' Justice

Mill's Public Sphare Without private Sphare

ROI

Private ROI

See Robert Dahal...

Government Following

following decisions

Janssen and Kien defined Deliberation that has impacto on the goverment as "Major" and a disccusion that do no followed by action by the govenment as "minor"[14]. For the forum to become major, Janssen and Kien suggest three mechanisms:

  1. visibility of the public space and therefore its potential political influence (i.e. the number of persons reading the messages). For example, one can think at the forum hosted by major newspapers such as the New York Times or Le Monde; ii)
  2. Aim: There are for instance an increasing number of web-based discussion spaces - the e-consultation procedures - aiming at providing feedback on special issues; iii)
  3. status and power: it can result from the status and the power of the people participating actively or even just passively (just reading) in the online debates. There are, for example, online discussion spaces where political representatives or high level civil servants participate. It is usually not a spontaneous participation, but a participation resulting from an explicit invitation of the organizers.

Massages in major deliberation, “citizenspace”, that was designed to enable citizens to enter into an interactive relationship with Government, had longer average massages then minor deliberation, e-consultation experience organized by the Hansard society on the Stem research. Coleman found that the major forum had an average of 345 words per massage, while the minor forum had average of 79 words per massage[15]. Janssen and Kies (2000), suggest that major spaces tend to be more respectful and constructive[16].

Gravitating toward the power of decision makers

In online discussion spaces where politicians are present, the discussion tends to revolve around them and much less around individual citizens[17]. In other words, the presence of politicians would have an impact on the flow of communication which could distract from the equilibrium and the fairness of the debate, and gravitate toward the power of decision makers.

In contexts where participants think that their voices can have an impact on decisions they are ready and willing to spend more time to elaborate and to justify their opinions.

learning and changing decisions

Bulding Blocks of Deliberation

Experts on dialogue processes argue that deliberative forums should have at least two phases: one characterized by “divergence,” in which opinions,perspectives, and options proliferate; and a second phase characterized by “convergence,” in which participants come to conclusions, shared insights, and next steps[18][19][20]. The first phase is important not only for giving participants a better sense of the range of problems and possible solutions but also for generating the creativity that leads to innovative answers and the sociability that gives people a stake in making the process work. But it the second phase is equally important and is in some ways more difficult, more likely to provoke feelings of frustration and antagonism among participants.

For another frame of analyzing the bulding blocks of deliberation see Gastil and Black 2008[21]. They present five bulding blocks:

  1. Creating an information base (SON).
  2. Prioritizing key values at stake (pre-Evaluation)
  3. Identifing wide range of possible solutions (Options)
  4. Weighing the solutions (Evaluation)
  5. Making the best decision possible (selecting)

They base their model of group decision making resesrch[22][23].

In my hypothesis I add the synthesis, cycle, doing, learning from doing, which help create more delicate and group-wise decisions, and learn from exprience.

SON

Why do We Need Social Knowledge in Deliberation

Common Ground is defined as a prerequisite for mutual understanding in communication processes and it consists of shared information, mutual knowledge, mutual beliefs, and mutual assumptions[24]. Building Common Ground is crucial for effective communication and collaborative work since it helps people converse and understand each other.

What is Social Knowledge

epistemology, SON

Methods for creating social knowledge.Moving from MONs to SON.

Methods for creating social knowledge in deliberation.

Falsification

falsifiability

Refinement

In emotional neutral deliberation, people added links to online discussion to contribute to an accurate picture of the choices[25].

Experts Knowledge

Integration of Experts Knowledge with Laymen Knowledge

Options

WHAT IS AN option?

Methods for creating options

In emotional neutral online deliberation people used links to other sites to create more options[26].

Evaluating

consequence

value

Synthesizing

synthesizing

The cycle of Creating SON, Creating Options, Evaluating and Synthsizing

Selecting

Wisdom of the Group

The ability of the group to solve problem wisely. See Wisdom of the Multitude.

Doing

Learning From Experience

Effects in Deliberation

Settings

Online Forum settings

Online political and discussion spaces design choices can powerfully influence the nature of its users’ engagement[27][28][29][30][31].

A better deliberation may be gained by Endorsing asynchronicity in online text-based discussions,Coleman and Gøtze[32], argue that ‘the best deliberative results are often achieved when messages are stored or archived and responded to after readers have had time to contemplate them’. Contrariwise, Fishkin et al.[33] contend that asynchronous forums tend to be relatively low in ‘affective bonding and mutual understanding’. Wright and Street (2007) associate several technical affordances of online forums, including prior review moderation and threaded messages, with increased deliberation.

Anonymity

Suler identifies anonymity and invisibility as key design features in the production of the ‘online disinhibition effect’, which is simply a tendency to speak and act with less restraint online than one would offline[34].

Topic

Hot vs. Cool

Hot topic will be one in which participents will have high stakes and the need for control will be high.

Participation

Communication

Ease of communication

Taken from Iandoli et al 2012[35]

Asynchronous vs. Real-time

It is fundamental to distinguish the real-time discussion spaces (chat-rooms) from the asynchronous online discussion spaces that do not have time constraints (email list; newsgroups; Bulletin boards; forums). It is generally recognized that the former are spaces that attract 'small talk' and jokes, while the latter constitute a more favourable place for the appearance of some form of rational-critical form of debate. We suspect the different types of asynchronous forums to also have an impact on the deliberativeness of the forum, however we are aware of no specific empirical research that could confirm this belief[36].

Identification

Some suggests that un-identification will make forum more open and therefore more reliable[37], while other think it will make the forums unreliable[38]

Restricted Participation

Some spaces are restricted, while others are open to every body. The participation can influance the outcome of the deliberation. For instance, open deliberation without restrictions can drive a way experts. It may be better to assambel groups acording to a commun interest and level of knowledg. On the other hand, limiting access can cause groupthink.

Moderation

Modration style may influance the forums in many ways.

Agenda setting

The agenda setting of the debate can be decentralized (defined by participants), centralized (defined by organisers) or partly centralized (defined by both)[39].

Topic-centerd vs People-centerd

Debates can also be organized around topics (eg. wikipedia) or around one or several political stakeholders(eg. blogs)[40]

Psychology

Self-Control

From FFFF to PFC

Flaming

Defined by Alonzo and Aiken (2004: 205) as ‘hostile intentions characterized by words of profanity, obscenity, and insults that inflict harm to a person or an organization resulting from uninhibited behavior’[41]. Flaming as an object of academic inquiry traces its origins to the pre-world wide web bulletin-board systems of the 1980s[42].

Respect

Janssen and Kies (2000), suggest that major spaces (government forums) tend to be more respectful and constructive[43].

Exploration and Exploitation Moods

Motivation and Inhibition in Deliberation

Limited resources

When people strugle to gain access to limited resouces, naturly, their motivation will grow. And also, as the amount of limited resources is grrater, the motivation will become greater. This is the reason, Churchill suggested that the number of seats in parliament will be smaller then the number of PMs. Jank and Kiel found out that people tend to write longer massages and gravitate toward decision makers, when politicians are participating an online discussion[44].

On the other hand, if there is not enough space, the fight for the limited resources may become a fight and skirmishes may arise, making the deliberation void.

ROI

See Robert Dahal

Maslow's Pyramid of needs

For every need in Maslow's pyramid of needs, there is an influance in motivation to deliberate.

In the physiological needs, people will use deliberation to direct more basic resources toward themselves (like money).

In Safety needs, people will use deliberation to understand complex phenoemnon and to make the public more orderd and safe. Here curiosity and terror managment will play signficant role.

In love and honor needs, people will try to achieve commun undestanding, respect and friendship.

In Honor needs, people will try to gain more honor from others, by beeing more informed or more power over decision making.

In Self-Fulfilment, people will use their special skills in knowledge contribute to the group.

Sociology

Gastil and Black framework gives four aspects of socilogy of deliberation:

  1. All participants should have equal and adequate speaking opportunities.
  2. All participants should attempt to comprehend one another’s views.
  3. All participants should make efforts to fully consider each other’s input.
  4. All participants should demonstrate respect for each other.

Researc show that virtuals teams need to estavlish relational variables early in their formation in FtF meetings[45]

Trust

Mebers in online groups has to acive trust[46][47]. The medium will change the trust level, when high social-information will elevate the trust levels[48]

Social Capital

Culture

Teams need to bulid bridges above diffrence in culture[49][50][51][52]

Positive Politics vs. Polarization

Twitter and facebook are knowen to ploraize debate. This a represntation of debate about the israeli(blue)-Palestinian (green) conflict in Gaza in 2014.

Produced by Gilad Lotan - source: Vox

Managing Conflicts

group need to manage conflicts[53]

Homogeneity and Heterogeneity

Presure on Minorties to Conform

Social psychological research on group decisionmaking has shown that those with minority opinions are often pressured to agree with the majority opinion, no matter how illinformed[54]; that high-status participants tend to be perceived as more accurate in their judgments even when they are not[55]; and that people tend to credit information they already know rather thaninformation they do not, even when indications are that the latter may be more accurate[56][57]

Learning

How do We Build the Bulding Blocks?

In what order and how we should build the sequence of deliberation and the effects of discussion, such as being able to filter and choose the most legitimate option[58]

SON

How do we learn

The importance of story telling and curiosity for learning.

How do we Integrate Different levels and areas of Knowledge?

Experts-Laymen problem. Integrating Differnet areas of knowledge

How do we Falisify?

Options

We can use priming, or private investigation.

Evaluaiting

Synthesizing

Cycling

Selecting

Processes of Deliberation

NIF

NIF is an abbreviation for National Issues Forum

OST

dcCDM

References

  1. ↑ Thompson, D.F. (2008). Deliberative Democratic Theory and Empirical Political Science, Annual Review of Political Science 11: 497–520.
  2. ↑ Mutz, D.C. (2008). Is Deliberative Democracy a Falsifiable Theory? Annual Review of Political Science 11: 521–538.
  3. ↑ Taken from Gonzalez-Bailon, S., Kaltenbrunner, A., & Banchs, R. E. (2010). The structure of political discussion networks: a model for the analysis of online deliberation. Journal of Information Technology, 25(2), 230–243.
  4. ↑ Pateman, C. (1970). Participation and Democratic Theory, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  5. ↑ Cohen, J. (1989). Deliberative Democracy and Democratic Legitimacy, in A. Hamlin and P. Pettit (eds.) The Good Polity, Oxford: Blackwell,pp. 17–34.
  6. ↑ Fishkin, J.S. (1991). Democracy and Deliberation, Yale: Yale University Press.
  7. ↑ Barber, B.R. (1998). Three Scenarios for the Future of Technology and Strong Democracy, Political Science Quarterly 113(4): 573–590.
  8. ↑ Beierle, T. C. (2002). Democracy Online: An Evaluation of the National Dialogue on Public Involvement in EPA decision. RFF Report, Washington.
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  10. ↑ Jankowski, N. & Van Selm M. (2000) The promise and Practice of Public Debate in Cyberspace. K. Hacker and J.A.G.M. Van Dijk, Eds. Digital Democracy: Issues of theory and practice. London: Sage.
  11. ↑ Jankowski, N. W. and R. van Os (2002). Internet-based Political Discourse: A Case Study of Electronic Democracy in the City of Hoogeveen. Euricom Colloquium: Electronic Networks & Democracy. Nijmegen, The Netherlands: 17.
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  14. ↑ Janssen, D., & Kies, R. (2004). Online Forums and Deliberative Democracy : Hypotheses , Variables and Methodologies. In Empirical Approaches to Deliberative Politics”, European University Institute, Florence, 22-23 May 2004 (pp. 1–30). Florence.(p.6)
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  57. ↑ Mendelberg, T. (2002). The deliberative citizen: Theory and evidence. Political Decisionmaking, Deliberation and Participation, 6, 151-193. (Overview)
  58. ↑ Landa, D. and Meirowitz, A. (2009). Game Theory, Information, and Deliberative Democracy, American Journal of Political Science 53(2): 427–444.
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