Public opinion formation for democratic decision-making in local governmentsCai, Guoray; Tian, Ye; Kropczynski, Jessica; Carroll, John M.
2017 Information Polity
doi: 10.3233/IP-170409
The legitimacy of public decision-making in democratic government is often challenged by its lack of capability for representing the public and their true preferences. This paper revisits existing methods of eliciting public opinions through the lens of structured public decision making, and highlights the importance of establishing public value and solid decision analysis before measuring public opinion. While deliberative mini-publics have been used to enable informed and reasoned judgment, they are vague on how opinions can be formed deliberatively and can not work well with highly complex and controversial issues that often have unclear value criteria. Following deliberative systems thinking, we argue for a three-phase process where opinions from the general public are elicited only after public values and solid decision analysis have been established. The working of this approach requires concatenation of three deliberative forums that establish legitimate public values, decision knowledge, and public opinions in synchronization with the three phases of public decision-making. We applied this approach on a real community issue in State College Borough (Pennsylvania), and developed a practical solution, Community OPinion Elicitation (COPE). COPE is a process that sequences two mini-publics (for public value identification and decision analysis) and one mass deliberation (for public opinion elicitation). While we observed positive impacts, it remains challenging to assess the method empirically.
Public opinion formation for democratic decision-making in local governmentsCai, Guoray; Tian, Ye; Kropczynski, Jessica; Carroll, John M.
2017 Information Polity
doi: 10.3233/ip-170409
The legitimacy of public decision-making in democratic government is often challenged by its lack of capability for representing the public and their true preferences. This paper revisits existing methods of eliciting public opinions through the lens of structured public decision making, and highlights the importance of establishing public value and solid decision analysis before measuring public opinion. While deliberative mini-publics have been used to enable informed and reasoned judgment, they are vague on how opinions can be formed deliberatively and can not work well with highly complex and controversial issues that often have unclear value criteria. Following deliberative systems thinking, we argue for a three-phase process where opinions from the general public are elicited only after public values and solid decision analysis have been established. The working of this approach requires concatenation of three deliberative forums that establish legitimate public values, decision knowledge, and public opinions in synchronization with the three phases of public decision-making. We applied this approach on a real community issue in State College Borough (Pennsylvania), and developed a practical solution, Community OPinion Elicitation (COPE). COPE is a process that sequences two mini-publics (for public value identification and decision analysis) and one mass deliberation (for public opinion elicitation). While we observed positive impacts, it remains challenging to assess the method empirically.
Ideation in an online participatory platform: Towards a conceptual framework1No, Won; Mook, Laurie; Schugurensky, Daniel
2017 Information Polity
doi: 10.3233/ip-170417
With the development of online participatory platforms, many governments are extending consultation processes beyond traditional face-to-face meetings. These online spaces are used by government agencies to collect ideas from the public and to aggregate preferences through non-binding voting procedures. Many of these digital platforms allow residents to post comments, creating potential for ideation processes. Examining data from an unmoderated online platform initiated by a municipal government, this paper explores whether ideation emerged organically in the deliberation process, and if so, how this occurred. After analyzing over 800 comments in the 20 most highly discussed ideas debated in the forum, the study confirmed that ideation took place and identified five main activities in the process: idea proposal, idea reception, idea development, idea closure, and idea implementation. It also distinguished eleven different roles performed by participants throughout the ideation process: initiating, supporting, disagreeing, clarifying, informing, arguing, commentary, expanding, wrapping, mobilizing, and implementing. The study also found that ideation patterns differed by idea theme and by the level of controversy of particular issues. The paper concludes with ideas for further research and recommendations for the design and implementation of online public participation processes.
Ideation in an online participatory platform: Towards a conceptual framework1No, Won; Mook, Laurie; Schugurensky, Daniel
2017 Information Polity
doi: 10.3233/IP-170417
With the development of online participatory platforms, many governments are extending consultation processes beyond traditional face-to-face meetings. These online spaces are used by government agencies to collect ideas from the public and to aggregate preferences through non-binding voting procedures. Many of these digital platforms allow residents to post comments, creating potential for ideation processes. Examining data from an unmoderated online platform initiated by a municipal government, this paper explores whether ideation emerged organically in the deliberation process, and if so, how this occurred. After analyzing over 800 comments in the 20 most highly discussed ideas debated in the forum, the study confirmed that ideation took place and identified five main activities in the process: idea proposal, idea reception, idea development, idea closure, and idea implementation. It also distinguished eleven different roles performed by participants throughout the ideation process: initiating, supporting, disagreeing, clarifying, informing, arguing, commentary, expanding, wrapping, mobilizing, and implementing. The study also found that ideation patterns differed by idea theme and by the level of controversy of particular issues. The paper concludes with ideas for further research and recommendations for the design and implementation of online public participation processes.
Media use by young Tunisians during the 2011 revolution vs 2014 electionsKavanaugh, Andrea; Sheetz, Steven D.; Skandrani, Hamida; Fox, Edward A.
2017 Information Polity
doi: 10.3233/IP-170412
Citizen participation is a key factor in open government and a fundamental form of collective problem solving in democratic societies. Citizens need reliable information to support collective sense making and decision-making. During crises, such as political uprisings and controversial elections, reliable information sources are essential for citizens to stay informed and make sense of rapidly changing developments. In countries that exert control over media, citizens try to access alternative information sources, such as unfiltered Internet and social media. Using two rounds of surveys with young, educated adults in Tunisia, we examined their use of diverse information sources during the 2011 revolution. We update these findings with a third survey round asking similar questions to young, educated Tunisian adults’ about their use of diverse information sources during the 2014 presidential and parliamentary elections. Our results show there have been dramatic changes in the use and perceptions of the reliability of broadcast media as Tunisia builds a new government with more open participation and national communication media. The Internet and social media still play an important role in informing the Tunisian public, but new government and private sources are perceived as significantly more reliable than they were under the authoritarian regime overthrown by the 2011 revolution. Our election survey results show that higher perceptions of information reliability, along with the sharing of online information, lead to greater political information efficacy (PIE). Prior studies show higher PIE is associated with greater democratic participation. This finding bodes well for the nascent democracy emerging in this small North African state.
Media use by young Tunisians during the 2011 revolution vs 2014 electionsKavanaugh, Andrea; Sheetz, Steven D.; Skandrani, Hamida; Fox, Edward A.
2017 Information Polity
doi: 10.3233/ip-170412
Citizen participation is a key factor in open government and a fundamental form of collective problem solving in democratic societies. Citizens need reliable information to support collective sense making and decision-making. During crises, such as political uprisings and controversial elections, reliable information sources are essential for citizens to stay informed and make sense of rapidly changing developments. In countries that exert control over media, citizens try to access alternative information sources, such as unfiltered Internet and social media. Using two rounds of surveys with young, educated adults in Tunisia, we examined their use of diverse information sources during the 2011 revolution. We update these findings with a third survey round asking similar questions to young, educated Tunisian adults’ about their use of diverse information sources during the 2014 presidential and parliamentary elections. Our results show there have been dramatic changes in the use and perceptions of the reliability of broadcast media as Tunisia builds a new government with more open participation and national communication media. The Internet and social media still play an important role in informing the Tunisian public, but new government and private sources are perceived as significantly more reliable than they were under the authoritarian regime overthrown by the 2011 revolution. Our election survey results show that higher perceptions of information reliability, along with the sharing of online information, lead to greater political information efficacy (PIE). Prior studies show higher PIE is associated with greater democratic participation. This finding bodes well for the nascent democracy emerging in this small North African state.