Discussion's Impact on Political Allocations: An Experimental Approach

2002 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 403-412 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam F. Simon ◽  
Tracy Sulkin
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Experimental Approach ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Political Decision Making

In this study, we unite two experimental traditions to examine the impact of discursive processes on political decision making. We directly manipulate the presence and timing of discussion in the “divide-the-dollar” game to assess the effects of discussion on participants' allocations and perceptions of the game's legitimacy. To investigate the influence of structure, we also manipulate the presence of a majority/minority cleavage among participants. The dependent measures in all instances are the players' allocations, the outcome of the game, and psychometric indicators of legitimacy perceptions. Results indicate that the presence of discussion can generate outcomes that are perceived as more equitable and fair in some circumstances—namely, when a cleavage is present. These findings establish the utility of this paradigm, as well as an important baseline for assessing the probable impacts of proposals to integrate deliberation into political decision making.

scholarly journals How design features affect evaluations of participatory platforms

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henrik Serup Christensen
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Generation Time ◽  
Design Features ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Identity Verification ◽  
Information Availability ◽  
Prior Use ◽  
Conjoint Experiment ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Political Decision Making

Online participatory platforms are introduced to boost citizen involvement in political decision-making. However, the design features of these platforms vary considerably, and these are likely to affect how prospective users evaluate the usefulness of these platforms. Previous studies explored how prevalent different design features are and how they affect the success of platforms in terms of impact, but the attitudes of prospective users remain unclear. Since these evaluations affect the prospects for launching successful participatory platforms, it is imperative to assess what citizens want from such digital possibilities for participation. This study uses a conjoint experiment (n=1048) conducted in Finland that explore the impact of seven design features: Discussion possibilities; Interaction with politicians and experts; Information availability, Aim of participation; Identity verification; Anonymous participation and Accessibility. Furthermore, it is examined whether the effects differ across use of ICTs measured by generation, time online and prior use of participatory platforms. The results suggest that most design features have clear effects on evaluations, and that deliberative features have the strongest effects. Furthermore, the effects are relatively stable across prior use although the less experienced put a stronger emphasis on verification.

scholarly journals Impact of globalization on the direct participation of citizens in local self-government in the Republic of Bulgaria

2021 ◽  
Vol 92 ◽  
pp. 07013
Author(s):  
Margarita Cheshmedzhieva ◽  
Vesela Mircheva ◽  
Galina Pisarska ◽  
Elena Haydushka
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Direct Democracy ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Direct Participation ◽  
Legal Method ◽  
Before And After ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Political Decision Making

Research background: The direct participation of citizens in political decision-making in the state is one of the ways to implement the public relations between the political state represented by the authorities of local self-government and administration. In addition to that, the civil society on behalf of the local inhabitants of the municipalities is also part of this process. Purpose of the article: This report aims to examine which forms of direct democracy are most often applied in the system of local self-government and what is the result of them in view of the economic independence of municipalities. The comparative study covers the periods before and after the signing of the European Charter of Local Self-Government in 1995 by the Republic of Bulgaria, as well as the periods before and after the accession of our country to the EU in 2007. These two events play a key role in the impact of globalization processes on the direct participation of citizens in local political decision making. Methods: The methodological tools, used in the research, include the comparative analysis and the comparative-legal method. Findings & Value added: The contribution of the research is expressed in tracking the trend in the application of various forms of direct participation of citizens in local government in the Republic of Bulgaria, in outlining the main shortcomings of legal regulations and factors, favoring or hindering the implementation of these forms, and in formulating proposals de lege ferenda to improve existing legislation.

Prospect Theory and Political Decision-Making

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janice Gross Stein ◽  
Lior Sheffer
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Prospect Theory ◽  
Group Dynamics ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
Probability Distributions ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Political Decision Making

Prospect theory has been adopted unevenly across different domains of political decision-making. Research drawing on prospect theory has contributed to important advances in the understanding of processes of elite decision-making in foreign policy and domestic politics. Political scientists have also contributed several important extensions of and qualifications to prospect theory that augment the original theoretical framework and are applicable in other disciplines. The next wave of research needs to be far more careful in specifying the scope conditions that have been the focus of research in behavioral economics. Scholars will also have to pay closer attention to the distribution of probability estimates across options; whether political decision makers are choosing among risky/certain bimodal distributions, high-probability distributions, high/low distributions, or low-probability distributions matters to the predicted impact of framing effects. Finally, studies will need to pay greater attention to the information political decision makers are given and to the impact of group dynamics in political settings. Identifying the scope conditions of prospect theory in the context of political and policymaking processes over time can make a significant contribution to the explanation of both domestic and foreign policy decisions, fill a gap between individual-level choice and institutionally based outcomes, and provide a stronger behavioral foundation for understanding the dynamics of multiactor policy choice.

A Matter of Life or Death: A Survey Experiment on the Perceived Legitimacy of Political Decision-Making on Euthanasia

2019 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
pp. 627-650
Author(s):  
Henrik Serup Christensen ◽  
Staffan Himmelroos ◽  
Maija Setälä
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Political Decision Making ◽  
Do So

AbstractMost representative democracies seem to experience dwindling levels of legitimacy in the eyes of citizens. Nevertheless, it remains unclear what people want from parliamentary decision-making. In this study, we test the impact of outcome favourability, actor involvement and justifications on the perceived legitimacy of a parliamentary decision-making process on euthanasia in Finland. We do so with the help of a survey experiment (n = 1243), where respondents were exposed to a vignette where the treatments varied randomly. The results suggest that outcome favourability is of primary importance, but the involvement of experts and citizens also boost legitimacy in the eyes of citizens. Justifications, or presenting arguments for the decisions, does not enhance legitimacy and may even cause a backfire mechanism where the difference between getting and not getting the preferred outcome is amplified.

scholarly journals Full Transparency of Politicians' Actions Does Not Increase the Quality of Political Representation

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Stadelmann ◽  
Marco Portmann ◽  
Reiner Eichenberger
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
Difference In Difference ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Voter Preferences ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Political Decision Making

AbstractWe identify the impact of transparency in political decision-making on the quality of political representation with a difference-in-difference strategy. The quality of political representation is measured by the observed divergence of parliamentary decisions from revealed voter preferences on identical issues. We show that full transparency of votes of individual politicians does not decrease divergence from voter preferences.

Anxiety, Fear, and Political Decision Making

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus Wagner ◽  
Davide Morisi
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Citizen Attitudes ◽  
Low Self Control ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Political Decision Making ◽  
Initial Research

Research has shown emotions affect decision-making in ways that do not simply undermine rationality. Instead, in recent decades researchers have recognized that emotions also motivate and focus individuals and moderate how they make decisions. Initial research into emotions divided these simply into positive and negative, but this perspective has largely been displaced in political psychology by an emphasis on the impact of distinct emotions; among these, anxiety has received the most scholarly attention, rivaled only by anger. The causes of anxiety, also termed fear and unease, are diverse, but research highlights certain attributes of situational evaluation such as low self-control, low certainty, and low external agency. Once present, anxiety has important consequences for decision-making. First, anxiety increases how much information individuals seek out, a pattern of behavior meant to reduce uncertainty. Second, anxiety decreases heuristic processing and weakens the reliance of underlying convictions in determining decisions. Instead, anxious individuals are more likely to think systematically about choices they face. Importantly, anxiety can affect choices and decisions even if they are not directly related to what caused anxiety to emerge, that is, if anxiety is incidental rather than integral. In addition to influencing how people make decisions, anxiety may also directly influence the decisions individuals make. Thus, anxiety increases risk aversion, leading individuals to choose safer paths of action. Anxiety also makes individuals less likely to take action at all, with the most common response being withdrawal and passivity. Applied to political decision-making, anxiety may have the important consequence of decreasing political participation. Research into the role of anxiety in decision-making is fast moving and vibrant, but to become fully established it needs to ensure rigor in measurement and research design; this will require considerable methodological research. Substantively, future research should focus on the effects of elite messages on anxiety as well as on how anxiety influences citizen attitudes and evaluations.

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