Measuring the impact of participatory procedures in the policy process

Participatory procedures complement the institutions of representative democracy and give citizens a voice and, at least in theory, greater influence on the political process. They are intended to lead to better political decisions, generate acceptance and legitimacy for the measures, train citizens' democratic and discursive skills, and ultimately strengthen democracy. Globally, dialogue-oriented participatory processes are becoming increasingly common at all political levels and on a wide range of policy issues. However, whether and how participatory procedures actually affect the process of policy formulation and the legitimacy of political decisions is the subject of current research. In particular, three structural characteristics of participatory processes have been given too little attention so far and could limit the substantial effects of participatory processes: 1. as a rule, only a very small proportion of citizens actively participate in participatory processes, 2. these processes are often not allowed to make binding decisions, and 3. participatory processes often do not exhibit any structural coupling to the political decision-making system. The question then is, how and why do participatory processes on political issues influence public discourse and political decision-making? Based on computational social science methods, and a quasi-experimental large N design, the paper seeks to explore the interaction of public discourse, representative democratic institutions and the implementation of democratic innovations on policy issues at the local level to trace changes in conflict structures and issue-related advocacy coalitions. The paper seeks to contribute to a better understanding of the macro-political effects of deliberative participatory procedures.