Catching the ‘Deliberative Wave’? How (Disaffected) Citizens Assess Deliberative Citizen Forums

Abstract A ‘deliberative wave’, with increasing uses of deliberative citizen forums, is sweeping the globe. Whereas forum enthusiasts claim that they represent appropriate tools to reconnect citizens politics and demand a stronger empowerment critics argue will reduce rather than increase democratic legitimacy. This letter sheds new light on roles forums in systems, particular eye disaffected citizens. Drawing conjoint experiment representative sample non-participating German citizens, it shows general challenge notions strong forums. They prefer are limited policy advice, collaborate legacy institutions include extra provisions (such as large size or clear majorities). By contrast, more open decoupling compared allegiant but this not imply generally favour such design features (in fact, mostly indifferent via-à-vis decoupling). These findings have important ramifications for designs.