A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
Public trust in advisory mini-publics: the impact of recommendations and institutional design features
Authors: Himmelroos, Staffan; Jäske, Maija; Setälä, Maija
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Publication year: 2025
Journal: Political Research Exchange (PRX)
Article number: 2601645
Volume: 8
Issue: 1
eISSN: 2474-736X
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/2474736X.2025.2601645
Publication's open availability at the time of reporting: Open Access
Publication channel's open availability : Open Access publication channel
Web address : https://doi.org/10.1080/2474736x.2025.2601645
Self-archived copy’s web address: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/508386348
Self-archived copy's licence: CC BY
Self-archived copy's version: Publisher`s PDF
Deliberative mini-publics are among the most studied forms of citizen participation with an active global developer network. Mini-publics have shaped legislation and provided useful information for voters in many countries, but our knowledge on the public perceptions of these mechanisms remains ambiguous. The public generally trusts mini-publics, but often on different grounds than democratic theory expects. We ran a population-based survey experiment (n = 2992) in Finland to examine how information regarding the design features of an advisory mini-public - organizer, composition and competence - and its policy recommendations affect the wider public's trust in the mini-public. Our experiment is based on a real mini-public, Citizens' Jury on Climate Actions organized in 2021, with a mandate from the Ministry of the Environment. We find that reading about mini-public recommendations and their justifications increases overall trust in the mini-public. However, the design features of the mini-public process had no effect on these general trust judgements.
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Funding information in the publication:
This work was supported by Research Council of Finland [Grant Number 341373]; Svenska Kulturfonden [Grant Number 188074].