Suchergebnisse

Municipalities in several countries have adopted measures of e-democracy in order to strengthen citizen involvement in the political decision-making. For this reason it has been expected that the Internet would lead to a deepening of democracy. However, e-democratic measures do not necessarily entail a deeper involvement of citizens in the political decision-making; it can also serve to strengthen the traditional representative structures. This study examines the implementation of e-democracy in the websites of 188 Finnish municipalities in order to assess whether the initiatives offered adapt a representative, participatory or deliberative perspective on democracy. The results suggest that the Finnish municipalities largely use their websites to inform citizens on on-going decision-making processes, thereby strengthening the traditional representative democracy rather than deepening the democratic involvement of citizens.

In this article, we examine whether a deliberative mini-public can provide a trusted source of information in the context of a polarized referendum. Political polarization gives rise to selective distrust of those on the 'other side'. The Citizens' Jury on Referendum Options in Korsholm, Finland, was organized in conjunction with a polarized referendum on a municipal merger. Our analysis is based on a field experiment measuring the effects of reading the jury's statement. We find that trust in all public actors was selective, that is, dependent on views on the merger, the Citizens' Jury being the only exception. Overall, reading the jury's statement increased trust in all public actors, including those perceived as being on the 'other side'. With some caveats, our findings suggest that mini-publics can alleviate selective distrust in polarized contexts.