When citizens met politicians – the process and outcomes of mixed deliberation according to participant status and gender

Figures & data

Table 1. Share of participants and of speech acts according to gender and status.

	Participants		Speech acts		Average length	Total length	% of words
	N	%	N	%
Woman	52	29	982	29	39	38,057	26
Man	127	71	2362	70	46	109,563	74
Citizen	139	78	2253	67	40	90,053	61
Politician	31	17	1051	31	51	53,428	36

Note: A speech act is defined as each coherent instance when one participant speaks.

Table 2. Discussion quality in each speech act in light of objective measures.

	Citizen	Politician	Man	Woman
Argumentation	*55.3	59.2	57.8	54.2
Internal validation	48.7	48.1	*45.6	50.0
External validation	*8.2	16.7	9.9	11.6
Justification
Qualified/sophisticated	**13.0	22.5	**17.4	13.5
Unsatisfying	28.4	26.0	27.9	26.3
No justification	58.6	51.5	54.7	60.1
Relevance
Direct	53.3	55.4	***51.5	59.1
Indirect	18.0	17.9	19.8	13.8
Reflection on debate	7.7	8.6	9.1	6.0
Irrelevant	21.0	18.2	19.6	21.1
Reciprocity
Support	33.6	36.3	***31.6	41.1
Opposition	*15.5	18.6	**17.5	13.4
Conviction	***16.4	11.7	**13.7	17.3
Progress	***78.5	85.6	79.9	82.5
Negative reaction	8.7	7.2	***9.6	4.4
Tone
Positive	*7.0	5.6	***6.9	6.0
Neutral	83.2	86.8	81.9	90.5
Negative	9.8	7.6	11.3	3.5
Incivility	2.8	1.7	***3.2	0.6
Impoliteness	*7.5	5.4	***7.9	3.9

* p < .05; ** p < .01; ***p < .001 (chi-squared test and Fisher’s exact test).

Table 3. Effects of deliberation on internal- and external efficacy according to status.

	Citizen (N = 89)			Politician (N = 24)
	Pre-test	Post-test	Change	Pre-test	Post-test	Change
Internal efficacy (sum index 0–3)	1.78	1.72	−0.06	1.15	1.25	0.10
I know more about politics than most people	1.26	1.10	*−0.16	0.88	0.63	−0.25
I have no say on what the municipal council or executive board decide	1.11	1.09	−0.02	1.81	1.41	−0.41
Sometimes politics seems so complicated that I don't really understand what is going on	1.26	1.15	−0.11	1.68	1.52	−0.16
External efficacy (sum index 0–3)	1.30	1.35	0.05	0.91	0.88	−0.03
People can exert influence through voting	0.71	0.85	*0.14	0.56	0.52	−0.04
Politicians do not care about the opinions of ordinary citizens	1.05	1.06	0.02	1.74	1.78	0.04
People's opinions are taken into account through the parties’ decision making	1.19	1.12	−0.07	0.88	0.92	0.04

Note. The efficacy scales have been recoded so that a higher value corresponds to higher level of efficacy. The single items range between 0 and 3.

*p < .05 (Paired-samples t-test).

Table 4. Effects of deliberation on internal- and external efficacy according to gender.

	Man (N = 120)			Woman (N = 58)
	Pre-test	Post-test	Change	Pre-test	Post-test	Change
Internal efficacy (sum index 0–3)	1.64	1.66	0.02	1.68	1.66	−0.02
I know more about politics than most people	1.13	1.00	−0.13	1.02	0.95	−0.07
I have no say on what the municipal council or executive board decide	1.08	1.13	0.05	1.25	1.02	*−0.23
Sometimes politics seems so complicated that I don't really understand what is going on	1.31	1.06	***−0.25	1.40	1.51	0.11
External efficacy (sum index 0–3)	1.23	1.29	0.06	1.30	1.18	−0.12
People can exert influence through voting	1.00	1.06	0.06	1.12	1.00	−0.12
Politicians do not care about the opinions of ordinary citizens	1.03	1.05	0.02	1.22	1.13	−0.10
People’s opinions are taken into account through the parties’ decision-making	1.14	1.15	0.02	1.30	0.97	**−0.33

Note. The efficacy scales have been recoded so that a higher value corresponds to higher level of efficacy. The single items range between 0 and 3.

* p < .05.

** p < .01.

*** p < .001 (paired-samples t-test).