Participatory Decision Making: A Field Experiment on Manipulating the Votes

Arbeitspapier

Many believe that deliberative democracy, where individuals discuss alternatives before voting on them, should result in collectively superior outcomes because voters become better informed and decisions are justified using reason. These deliberations typically involve a moderator, however, whose role has been under-examined. We conduct a field experiment to test the effects moderators may have. Participants in a class of 107 students voted on options over their writing and exam requirements. Before voting, they participated in group discussions of about five people each with one moderator. Some (randomly assigned) moderators remained neutral throughout, while others made limited interventions, supporting a specific option. We find a substantial moderator effect. Our experiment is structured like deliberations used world-wide to make community decisions and thus should have some external validity. The results indicate that if organized interest groups had influence over moderators, they might be able to hijack a deliberative decision-making process.

Angaben zum Objekt

• Sprache: Englisch

Verweise und Beziehungen

• Erschienen in: Series: EERI Research Paper Series ; No. 19/2010

Klassifikation und Themen

• Klassifikation: Wirtschaft ; General Financial Markets: General (includes Measurement and Data) ; Corporate Finance and Governance: General ; Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Voting; Proxy Contests; Corporate Governance ; Corporate Finance and Governance: Government Policy and Regulation ; Regulation and Business Law: General ; Business and Securities Law
• Thema: Participatory Decision Making ; Field Experiment ; Voting

Beteiligte, Orts- und Zeitangaben

• Ereignis: Geistige Schöpfung
• (wer): Spada, Paolo ; Vreeland, Raymond
• Ereignis: Veröffentlichung
• (wer): Economics and Econometrics Research Institute (EERI)
• (wo): Brussels
• (wann): 2010

Weitere Informationen

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/142581
• Letzte Aktualisierung: 10.03.2025, 11:43 MEZ