The determinants of minipublic uptake: results from a new databank

Based on a new databank comprising over 150 minipublic cases in several European countries and at the EU level, it is possible to draw more robust conclusions under what conditions policy recommendations by minipublics are taken up by political authorities (and when this is not the case). I focus on a wide-range of potential antecedents of minipublic uptake, ranging from issue type (complexity and salience), process design (e.g. initiative, size, composition), political support (especially alignment of recommendations with preferences of political elites), and characteristics of the country context (e.g. open vs closed political systems). In a multivariate statistical analysis I find that minipublic recommendations are mainly taken up at the regional level when there is political and organization by political authorities in Europe; by contrast process design variables do not matter. These findings have major implications for understanding the political and democratic role of minipublics in a democratic system.