Psychosocial Effects of the Ágora Infantil Mini-Public

In recent decades, various studies have considered how to improve the democratic system through different innovations involving citizen participation and deliberation in order to minimise shortcomings identified in the representative system (Fung, 2003). These initiatives have rarely been studied from the viewpoint of their effect on the participants. This study proposes the adoption of a psychosocial perspective to evaluate the effects of a binding mini-public known as Ágora Infantil (AI) (http://www.agorainfantil.com/) on its participants. AI is an initiative consisting of 7 to 9 sessions during which schoolchildren from different municipalities make decisions regarding local policies. It is being implemented as an experiment since 2014 in the schools of different municipalities in the autonomous community of Andalusia (Spain). The study takes as its reference the theoretical and empirical research in the field of social psychology regarding the effects of participation on psychological empowerment (Cano and Arroyave, 2014; Christens and Peterson, 2011), trust (Larson and Hansen 2005; Mitra 2004), community cohesion (Krauss, Collura, Zeldin, Ortgea, Abdullah and Sulaiman, 2014; Leggett, 2016), problem-solving, empathy (Akiva, Cortina and Smith, 2014), satisfaction and personal well-being (Lorenzini, 2015; Rode, 2013). This background is used to formulate a general hypothesis that participation under the AI initiative enhances psychological empowerment, subjective well-being and institutional trust among the participants. The evaluation is carried out using a quasi-experimental design with pre and post-intervention measures for both the target group and the control group. The study involves participation by a total of 1,636 children aged between 9 and 14 (M = 10.47; SD = 1.23); 48.5% were girls and 51.5% were boys. The dependent variables were measured using a questionnaire with items prepared for the study in the case of the intrapersonal and interactional component of empowerment and also for institutional trust. Tools developed by other authors have been used to measure the perception of being listened to (Casas and Bello, 2012), subjective well-being and the behavioural component of empowerment (Canadian Mental Health Association, 2003). The data were gathered in the schools by the study team prior to the start of the first session and at the end of the last session. A one-way ANOVA repeated measures analysis has been performed for the Likert variables) and the McNemar test for the categorical questions. The results show a significant change in the expected direction. These data provide information on the psychological effects of socialisation on deliberative decision-making processes. It can also provide guidance as to how these political innovations should be designed to enhance political participation by future generations.