Mapping and Measuring Deliberation: Empirical and Conceptual Advances

In this talk, I focus on recent empirical and conceptual developments in empirical research on deliberation. I first focus on deliberative abilities (of ordinary citizens), whereby I introduce novel measurement tools using (Bayesian) item response analysis. I then turn to the “deliberative incompetence and distortion thesis”, exploring how capable citizens are of meeting deliberative ideals; whether socio-economic, cultural and psychological biases affect the ability to deliberate; and whether opinion change results from the exchange of arguments. Second, I dwell on some “anomalies” when it comes to opinion change, which many scholars see as a ´marker´ of deliberative success. Third, I put the empirical results into the perspective of “new deliberation”, whereby I introduce a “functional approach” which takes goals and contexts of deliberation more seriously and allows for a novel reading of empirical results.