Fast Track or Wrong Track: The Role of Heuristics in Deliberative Systems

The paper focuses on the role heuristics can and should play within a deliberative system. Usually, heuristics are seen in opposition to deliberation: Whereas deliberation aims at systematically exploring information and arguments related to a specific problem, heuristics ignore information in order to facilitate fast and frugal decisions. However, scholars have pointed to the advantages heuristics can have for citizens and elites to come to terms with an ever increasing social complexity. Some scholars even postulate that heuristics lead to better results than more complex procedures of decision-making – especially when complete information regarding the problem under consideration is not available or too costly. Thus, the question arises how the positive potential and possibly negative effects of heuristics can be combined with a deliberation approach to political decision making. For empirical illustration, I will draw on a research project that investigates communication strategies of political parties in an increasingly dynamic, complex and insecure environment characterized by a plurality of channels and platforms as well as a new hybridity of old and new media logics.