IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i8p4656-d793101.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

When Digital Mass Participation Meets Citizen Deliberation: Combining Mini- and Maxi-Publics in Climate Policy-Making

Author

Listed:
  • Anatol Itten

    (Department of Multi Actor Systems, Delft University of Technology, 2628 Delft, The Netherlands)

  • Niek Mouter

    (Department of Engineering Systems & Services, Delft University of Technology, 2628 Delft, The Netherlands)

Abstract

The upcoming vogue of climate assemblies and other forms of mini-publics are to give citizens a central role in climate policy-making and to break the political impasse. Yet climate mini-publics face challenges in political environments too, such as co-option, favoring expert opinions, and losing touch with the broader public. To remedy such pitfalls, recent papers have argued to combine synchronous deliberations of small groups of citizens with online participation procedures for the larger public. In this article, we report the results of a three-step combination model, where first a mini-public in the region of Súdwest-Fryslân (NL) was given a “carte blanche” to draft the content and the parameters of several related policy alternatives. Second, their proposals were fed into a digital participation tool to consult the wider public. Third, a citizens forum translated the outcomes of the maxi-public into policy recommendations, which were unanimously approved by the municipal council. In this paper, we report our findings of combining mini- and maxi-publics and how the actors involved evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of the combination of these two participatory approaches.

Suggested Citation

  • Anatol Itten & Niek Mouter, 2022. "When Digital Mass Participation Meets Citizen Deliberation: Combining Mini- and Maxi-Publics in Climate Policy-Making," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-25, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:8:p:4656-:d:793101
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/8/4656/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/8/4656/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Katariina Kulha & Mikko Leino & Maija Setälä & Maija Jäske & Staffan Himmelroos, 2021. "For the Sake of the Future: Can Democratic Deliberation Help Thinking and Caring about Future Generations?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-13, May.
    2. Christoph Niessen, 2019. "When citizen deliberation enters real politics: how politicians and stakeholders envision the place of a deliberative mini-public in political decision-making," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 52(3), pages 481-503, September.
    3. Rebecca Sandover & Alice Moseley & Patrick Devine-Wright, 2021. "Contrasting Views of Citizens’ Assemblies: Stakeholder Perceptions of Public Deliberation on Climate Change," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(2), pages 76-86.
    4. Lala Muradova & Hayley Walker & Francesca Colli, 2020. "Climate change communication and public engagement in interpersonal deliberative settings: evidence from the Irish citizens’ assembly," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(10), pages 1322-1335, November.
    5. Patrick Devine-Wright, 2019. "Community versus local energy in a context of climate emergency," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 4(11), pages 894-896, November.
    6. Hilary S. Boudet, 2019. "Public perceptions of and responses to new energy technologies," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 4(6), pages 446-455, June.
    7. Daniel Oross & Eszter Mátyás & Sergiu Gherghina, 2021. "Sustainability and Politics: Explaining the Emergence of the 2020 Budapest Climate Assembly," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-13, May.
    8. Langer, Katharina & Decker, Thomas & Menrad, Klaus, 2017. "Public participation in wind energy projects located in Germany: Which form of participation is the key to acceptance?," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 63-73.
    9. Neblo, Michael A. & Esterling, Kevin M. & Kennedy, Ryan P. & Lazer, David M.J. & Sokhey, Anand E., 2010. "Who Wants To Deliberate—And Why?," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 104(3), pages 566-583, August.
    10. Mouter, Niek & Koster, Paul & Dekker, Thijs, 2021. "Contrasting the recommendations of participatory value evaluation and cost-benefit analysis in the context of urban mobility investments," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 54-73.
    11. Nicola Moczek & Susanne Hecker & Silke L. Voigt-Heucke, 2021. "The Known Unknowns: What Citizen Science Projects in Germany Know about Their Volunteers—And What They Don’t Know," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-25, October.
    12. John Gastil & Robert Richards, 2013. "Making Direct Democracy Deliberative through Random Assemblies," Politics & Society, , vol. 41(2), pages 253-281, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mouter, Niek & Jara, Karen Trujillo & Hernandez, Jose Ignacio & Kroesen, Maarten & de Vries, Martijn & Geijsen, Tom & Kroese, Floor & Uiters, Ellen & de Bruin, Marijn, 2022. "Stepping into the shoes of the policy maker: Results of a Participatory Value Evaluation for the Dutch long term COVID-19 strategy," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 314(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Stephen Elstub & Jayne Carrick & David M. Farrell & Patricia Mockler, 2021. "The Scope of Climate Assemblies: Lessons from the Climate Assembly UK," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-17, October.
    2. Hoicka, Christina E. & Lowitzsch, Jens & Brisbois, Marie Claire & Kumar, Ankit & Ramirez Camargo, Luis, 2021. "Implementing a just renewable energy transition: Policy advice for transposing the new European rules for renewable energy communities," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    3. Kim Strandberg & Kim Backström & Janne Berg & Thomas Karv, 2021. "Democratically Sustainable Local Development? The Outcomes of Mixed Deliberation on a Municipal Merger on Participants’ Social Trust, Political Trust, and Political Efficacy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-17, June.
    4. Andrew G.H. Thompson & Oliver Escobar & Jennifer J. Roberts & Stephen Elstub & Niccole M. Pamphilis, 2021. "The Importance of Context and the Effect of Information and Deliberation on Opinion Change Regarding Environmental Issues in Citizens’ Juries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-21, September.
    5. Soutar, Iain & Devine-Wright, Patrick & Rohse, Melanie & Walker, Chad & Gooding, Luke & Devine-Wright, Hannah & Kay, Imogen, 2022. "Constructing practices of engagement with users and communities: Comparing emergent state-led smart local energy systems," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    6. Hogan, Jessica L. & Warren, Charles R. & Simpson, Michael & McCauley, Darren, 2022. "What makes local energy projects acceptable? Probing the connection between ownership structures and community acceptance," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    7. Christoph Engel & Luigi Mittone & Azzurra Morreale, 2024. "Outcomes or participation? Experimentally testing competing sources of legitimacy for taxation," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 62(2), pages 563-583, April.
    8. Łukasz Jarosław Kozar & Robert Matusiak & Marta Paduszyńska & Adam Sulich, 2022. "Green Jobs in the EU Renewable Energy Sector: Quantile Regression Approach," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(18), pages 1-21, September.
    9. Eid Gul & Giorgio Baldinelli & Pietro Bartocci, 2022. "Energy Transition: Renewable Energy-Based Combined Heat and Power Optimization Model for Distributed Communities," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(18), pages 1-18, September.
    10. Lehmann, Nico & Sloot, Daniel & Schüle, Christopher & Ardone, Armin & Fichtner, Wolf, 2023. "The motivational drivers behind consumer preferences for regional electricity – Results of a choice experiment in Southern Germany," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    11. Hübner, Gundula & Leschinger, Valentin & Müller, Florian J.Y. & Pohl, Johannes, 2023. "Broadening the social acceptance of wind energy – An Integrated Acceptance Model," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    12. Liuyang Yao & Qian Zhang & Kin Keung Lai & Xianyu Cao, 2020. "Explaining Local Residents’ Attitudes toward Shale Gas Exploitation: The Mediating Roles of Risk and Benefit Perceptions," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(19), pages 1-13, October.
    13. Gordon, Joel A. & Balta-Ozkan, Nazmiye & Nabavi, Seyed Ali, 2022. "Homes of the future: Unpacking public perceptions to power the domestic hydrogen transition," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    14. Vittadini, Giorgio & Sturaro, Caterina & Folloni, Giuseppe, 2022. "Non-Cognitive Skills and Cognitive Skills to measure school efficiency," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    15. Hoti, Ferdiana & Perko, Tanja & Thijssen, Peter & Renn, Ortwin, 2021. "Who is willing to participate? Examining public participation intention concerning decommissioning of nuclear power plants in Belgium," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    16. John C. Pierce & Rachel M. Krause & Sarah L. Hofmeyer & Bonnie J. Johnson, 2021. "Explanations for Wind Turbine Installations: Local and Global Environmental Concerns in the Central Corridor of the United States?," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-11, September.
    17. Phimsupha Kokchang & Yuan Zhao & Suthirat Kittipongvises, 2023. "Understanding Citizens’ Perceptions and Attitudes toward Energy Restructuring under China’s NDC for Quality of Life: A Case of Linfen City," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 13(5), pages 566-576, September.
    18. Kazmi, Hussain & Munné-Collado, Íngrid & Mehmood, Fahad & Syed, Tahir Abbas & Driesen, Johan, 2021. "Towards data-driven energy communities: A review of open-source datasets, models and tools," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    19. Badr Eddine Lebrouhi & Eric Schall & Bilal Lamrani & Yassine Chaibi & Tarik Kousksou, 2022. "Energy Transition in France," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-28, May.
    20. Christina E. Hoicka & Jessica Conroy & Anna Berka, 2021. "Reconfiguring actors and infrastructure in city renewable energy transitions: a regional perspective," GEIST - Geography of Innovation and Sustainability Transitions 2021(06), GEIST Working Paper Series.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:8:p:4656-:d:793101. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.