Does deliberation help deliver informed electorates: Evidence from Irish referendum votes

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dc.contributor.authorSuiter, Janeen
dc.contributor.authorReidy, Theresaen
dc.date.accessioned2023-10-18T13:12:23Z
dc.date.available2023-10-18T13:12:23Z
dc.date.issued43825en
dc.description.abstractWe argue that integrating citizen deliberation structures into the pre-referendum phase can deliver systematic improvements in democratic outcomes such as alignment between values and vote. Using data from three Irish referendums, the research examines the potential of deliberative mini-publics to deliver more informed electorates. An emerging branch of literature argues that direct and deliberative democracy can be mutually supportive. It demonstrates that there is much potential to be realised when the fields of deliberation and the practice of referendums are brought together. Greater understanding of referendum issues can be achieved by mini-publics extending the time allocated to discussing issues, producing rigorous and informed materials and delivering decisions which stem from citizens who are more likely to approximate the general public and therefore be more trusted by ordinary voters. Ultimately we argue that deliberative processes enhance subjective and objective knowledge and this leads to referendum outcomes where a larger share of voters cast ballots which align with their fundamental values. The analysis demonstrates that there was greater alignment between the core values of voters and their vote decisions when a deliberative phase was introduced into the constitutional referendum process; and furthermore that this alignment grew as deliberation became more embedded and normalised.en
dc.description.statusPeer revieweden
dc.description.versionAccepted Versionen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.citationSuiter, J. and Reidy, T. (2020)' Does deliberation help deliver informed electorates: Evidence from Irish referendum votes', Representation, 56(4), pp. 539-557. doi: 10.1080/00344893.2019.1704848en
dc.identifier.doi10.1080/00344893.2019.1704848en
dc.identifier.eissn1749-4001en
dc.identifier.endpage557en
dc.identifier.issn0034-4893en
dc.identifier.issued4en
dc.identifier.journaltitleRepresentationen
dc.identifier.startpage539en
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10468/15133
dc.identifier.volume56en
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherTaylor & Francisen
dc.rights© 2019, McDougall Trust, London. Published by Taylor & Francis. All rights reserved. This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Representation on 26 December 2019, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/00344893.2019.1704848. It is deposited under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.en
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/en
dc.subjectReferendumsen
dc.subjectCitizen deliberationen
dc.subjectMini-publicsen
dc.subjectAbortionen
dc.subjectMarriage equalityen
dc.titleDoes deliberation help deliver informed electorates: Evidence from Irish referendum votesen
dc.typeArticle (peer-reviewed)en
oaire.citation.issue4en
oaire.citation.volume56en
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