Deliberative Mini-Publics: Practices, Promises, Pitfalls

Edited by Kimmo Grönlund, André Bächtiger, and Maija Setälä

This book takes stock of the wide range of practices of deliberative mini-publics. More concretely, it takes an informed look at preconditions, processes, and outcomes. Furthermore, it provides a critical assessment of the experience with mini-publics, in particular (the lack of) policy-impact. The book brings together leading scholars in the field, most notably James S. Fishkin and Mark E. Warren. It speaks to students and scholars with an interest in democracy and democratic innovations. This is the first comprehensive account of the booming practice of deliberative mini-publics. Not only does it provide the reader with a systematic review of the variety of mini-publics, it also discusses their weaknesses and makes recommendations on how to make mini-publics a viable component of democracy.

Related Subjects

• Political Philosophy
• Politics and Political Theory

About the Author

Kimmo Grönlund is the Director of the Social Science Research Institute at Abo Akademi. Since 2011, he is one of the two Principal Investigators of the Finnish National Election Study. He is a Convenor of the new ECPR Standing Group on Democratic Innovations. André Bächtiger was Swiss Chair/Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute in Florence and senior assistant at the Institute of Political Science at the University of Bern. Currently he is research professor at the University of Lucerne. He is also member of the steering committee of the new ECPR Standing Group on Democratic Innovations. Maija Setälä holds an academy research fellowship from the Academy of Finland. She has been a visiting research fellow at Columbia University and Australian National University. She is also member of the steering committee of the new ECPR Standing Group on Democratic Innovations.

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