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Support for Deliberative mini-Publics among the Losers of Representative Democracy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 December 2023

Jean-Benoit Pilet Open the ORCID record for Jean-Benoit Pilet [Opens in a new window] ,
Camille Bedock Open the ORCID record for Camille Bedock [Opens in a new window] ,
David Talukder Open the ORCID record for David Talukder [Opens in a new window]  and
Sacha Rangoni
Jean-Benoit Pilet*
Affiliation:
CEVIPOL, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium
Camille Bedock
Affiliation:
CNRS, Sciences Po Bordeaux, Bordeux, France
David Talukder
Affiliation:
CEVIPOL, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium POLIS, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
Sacha Rangoni
Affiliation:
CEVIPOL, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium
*
Corresponding author: Jean-Benoit Pilet; Email: Jean-Benoit.Pilet@ulb.be
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Abstract

The literature on deliberative mini-publics (DMPs) establishes a link between political dissatisfaction and support for DMPs. However, little is known about the sources of political dissatisfaction that trigger this support. Our research tackles this specific question and claims that citizen dissatisfaction is rooted in a position of ‘losers of representative democracy’, which leads citizens to be more open to reforms that move away from the representative model. Building on the literature on loser's consent, we focus on the effect of voting for a party not associated with the government and of descriptive and substantive (under)-representation in support of DMPs. We rely on a comparative survey conducted across fifteen Western European countries. Supporters of opposition parties and those who are badly represented, both descriptively and substantively, are more supportive of DMPs. These findings have important implications for understanding the public appeal for deliberative democracy instruments.

Keywords

deliberative mini-publics (DMPs)deliberative democracysortitionrepresentative democracylosers

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Type
Article
Information
British Journal of Political Science , Volume 54 , Issue 2 , April 2024 , pp. 295 - 312
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press

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