Abstract

This is an accepted article with a DOI pre-assigned that is not yet published.

The deliberative effect of social learning assumes that when a diverse group of citizens is brought together to deliberate face-to-face in small, moderated groups, participants are stimulated to understand and appreciate opposing views. However, it is unclear how the process of deliberation acts as a stimulus of social learning when policymakers invite citizens to deliberate on actual policymaking. Through semi-structured interviews conducted after Antwerp participatory budgeting, the participants’ perspective reveals that when the perception of decisiveness of the output in the process grows, the perception of deliberation diminishes. Correspondingly, I found that participants’ self-interest and social learning motivations were mutually exclusive. Hence, this case study exposes a tension between deliberation as a stimulus of social learning, and deliberation as a way of granting power to citizens; two intrinsically participatory objectives for policymakers. -- The manuscript is being considered for the special collection entitled "Psychological Phenomena in Democratic Deliberation --

Keywords

associations, motivations, social learning, participatory budget, deliberation