Change for the Better? Linking the Mechanisms of Deliberative Opinion Change to Normative Theory

The case for institutional deliberative reform does not go through unless we assume that it changes opinions via mechanisms congruent with normative theories of deliberation. Yet little research addresses this assumption head-on. I bridge deliberative theory and practice by making explicit several causal claims implicit in the theory literature, and then testing them in three policy domains. I use hierarchical statistical techniques to more adequately model the intrinsic dependence of deliberative data, and include social network effects to test interpersonal paths of influence. The results provide substantial, though qualified, support for several of deliberative theory’s claims.