The ideological foundation of citizens’ preferences for political decision-making processes

This paper sets out to study the ideological foundation of citizens’ preferences for political decision- making processes. In contemporary public, as well as scholarly debate there is a visible trend in favour of more direct public engagement in political decision making. Political theorists have called for more participatory forms of democracy and scholars as well as policy-makers have pursued an array of projects that engage citizens in participatory and deliberative participation. Previous research has however, demonstrated that people have different conceptions of the ideal democratic process. This study is focused on the ideological foundation of process preferences. Participatory models of democracy has historically been emphasised by the labour movement and can also be connected to the New Left in the 1960s and 1970s. A representative conception on political decision making does on the other hand come closer to the classic Schumpetarian idea of democracy as a competition between elites and even the minimalistic legal model with its main proponents within the New Right. The aim of this paper is to explore the extent to which a corresponding ideological bias in process preferences is to be found among citizens. Preferences for three different conceptions of political decision making are examined; representative, participatory and technocratic processes. The data analysed is the Finnish national election study 2015, a post-election study that includes a rich selection of survey items on political processes and political decision making.