The dissatisfied and the engaged: citizen support for citizens’ assemblies and their willingness to participate

Abstract

Ireland is a setting where citizens’ assemblies (CAs) have played a prominent role, driving considerable policy change and impactful referendum initiatives. Irish citizens are therefore particularly likely to be aware of the potential of such deliberative processes. We examine citizen’s support for political reforms towards more deliberation, as well as their potential willingness to engage. We find that support and participation are driven by citizens who are dissatisfied with the regime, or who are particularly likely to be politically engaged. While the former tend to support most types of political reforms, the latter are in particular driven towards more deliberative modes of politics. Our findings furthermore suggest that participation rates in CAs will be lower among some cohorts of society than others and correlated with factors such as education, political interest, and perceived corruption.

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