The Role of Leaders in Democratic Deliberations: Results from a Field Experiment in São Tomé and Príncipe

2006 ◽  
Vol 58 (4) ◽  
pp. 583-622 ◽  
Author(s):  
Macartan Humphreys ◽  
William A. Masters ◽  
Martin E. Sandbu
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Field Experiment ◽  
Democratic Deliberation ◽  
Leader Influence ◽  
Sao Tome And Principe ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Political Decision Making ◽  
Rare Opportunity

Despite a widespread trend toward the adoption of increasingly participatory approaches to political decision making in developing countries, there is little or no evidence that these practices in fact return the benefits attributed to them. This article investigates one specific worry—that participatory decision-making processes may be vulnerable to manipulation by elites. The authors report on a field experiment, drawing on a unique nationwide experiment in democratic deliberation in São Tomé and Príncipe in which the discussion leaders were randomly assigned across meetings. The randomization procedure provides a rare opportunity to identify the impact of leaders on the outcomes of group deliberations. They find that leader effects were extremely large, in many cases accounting for over one-third of all variation in the outcomes of the national discussions. These results have important implications for the design of such deliberative practices. While the total effect of leadership cannot be assessed, it may still be possible to observe when leader influence occurs and to correct for leader effects in comparisons of outcomes across deliberations.

scholarly journals THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON MIGRATION DECISION-MAKING PROCESSES: Case of Indonesian Student in University of Groningen

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 515
Author(s):  
Inayah Hidayati
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Migration Decision ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Migration Behavior ◽  
Interview Guide ◽  
Destination Area ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
The Impact

Objective: This research aims to explain the impact of social media on the migration decision-making process of Indonesian student migrants in University of Groningen who used a social media account. In detail, this research will consider the role of social media in the migration decision-making process of students who emigrated from Indonesia and how they uses social media in the context of the migration decision-making process. Methods: The data collected included qualitative data from in-depth interviews and supported by study literatures. An interview guide was formulated to facilitate the indepth interviews and generate a better understanding of migration behavior. Expectation: Social media help Indonesian student migrants on migration decision making process and they use social media for searching information about destination area. Result: Student migrant in University of Groningen use their social media to gain information before they choose that university for study. They use Facebook to making contact with their friends and collagues in the destination country. Student group on Facebook help Indonesian student to get information about school and daily life.

Let’s Perform and Paint! The Role of Creative Mediums in Enhancing Management Research Representation

2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 301-308 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lakshmi Balachandran Nair ◽  
Pauline Fatien Diochon ◽  
Reka Anna Lassu ◽  
Suzanne G. Tilleman
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Management Research ◽  
Business Professionals ◽  
Missed Opportunities ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Multisensory Experience ◽  
Research Representation

The limited reach of management research results in missed opportunities to support the decision-making processes of business professionals and policy makers. To strengthen the impact of management research and overcome barriers posed by text-heavy representation, we advocate for the use of creative mediums (e.g., collage, film, poetry) to showcase the product of an inquiry, either alone or as a supplement to traditional reporting. We provide a rationale for how these mediums trigger interest, foster a multisensory experience, convey complex meaning, and spark contemporary, inclusive dialogues. Each of the four rationales is discussed by showing an example of previous use, and explaining how the respective barrier to research representation is overcome. We finally offer recommendations for how management researchers can employ creative mediums to enhance the fertility of their work.

Feminist Perspectives on Foreign Policy

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne-Marie D'Aoust
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Comparative Politics ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Gender Mainstreaming ◽  
Foreign Policies ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Role Of Women ◽  
The Impact

Foreign policy analysis (FPA) deals with the decision-making processes involved in foreign policy-making. As a field of study, FPA overlaps international relations (IR) theory and comparative politics. Studies that take into account either sex, women, or gender contribute to the development of knowledge on and about women in IR, which is in itself one of the goals of feminist scholarship. There are two main spheres of feminist inquiries when it comes to foreign policy: the role of women as sexed power holders involved in decision-making processes and power-sharing in the realm of foreign policy-making, and the role of gendered norms in the conduct and adoption of foreign policies. Many observers insist that feminism and foreign policy are linked only by a marriage of convenience, designed to either acknowledge the political accomplishments of women in the sphere of foreign policy such as Margaret Thatcher and Indira Ghandi, or bring attention to so-called “women’s issues,” such as reproduction rights and population control. Scholarship on women and/or gender in relation to foreign policy covers a wide range of themes, such as the role of women as political actors in decision-making processes and organizational structures; women’s human rights and gender mainstreaming; the impact of various foreign policies on women’s lives; and the concept of human security and the idea of women’s rights as a valid foreign policy objective. Three paradigms that have been explored as part of the study of women in comparative politics and IR are behavioralism, functionalism, and rational choice theory.

Citizens' Juries and Deliberative Democracy

2000 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graham Smith ◽  
Corinne Wales
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Deliberative Democracy ◽  
Institutional Design ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Democratic Deliberation ◽  
Democratic Practice ◽  
The Face ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Political Decision Making

In the face of widespread dissatisfaction with contemporary democratic practice, there has been a growing interest in theories of deliberative democracy. However theorists have often failed to sufficiently address the question of institutional design. This paper argues that recent experiments with citizens' juries should be of interest to deliberative democrats. The practice of citizens' juries is considered in light of three deliberative democratic criteria: inclusivity, deliberation and citizenship. It is argued that citizens' juries offer important insights into how democratic deliberation could be institutionalized in contemporary political decision-making processes.

scholarly journals Geopolitical ideas of Czech public

Geografie ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 120 (4) ◽  
pp. 564-584 ◽  
Author(s):  
Přemysl Mácha ◽  
Tomáš Drobík ◽  
Monika Šumberová ◽  
Jan Ženka ◽  
Eva Tenzin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Reference Point ◽  
Political Orientation ◽  
Original Research ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Public Opinion Surveys ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Political Decision Making

This article analyses geographical and geopolitical ideas of the Czech public. Geographical ideas have become one of the basic conceptual instruments of contemporary human geography for the research into the influence of “spatial discourse” on political decision-making processes. The analysis is based on public opinion surveys and original research. It is its objective to identify basic geopolitical ideas of the Czech public in the context of Czech membership in NATO, to find the links between the perception of various types of geopolitical threats and to try to explain them on the basis of socio-demographic and geographic characteristics of the respondents. A particular emphasis is placed on NATO as a key reference point and a mediator of geographical and geopolitical ideas. Statistically significant differences in the perception and localization of threats and the role of NATO were found in relation to gender, age, residence, education and political orientation.

Anxiety, Fear, and Political Decision Making

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus Wagner ◽  
Davide Morisi
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Citizen Attitudes ◽  
Low Self Control ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Political Decision Making ◽  
Initial Research

Research has shown emotions affect decision-making in ways that do not simply undermine rationality. Instead, in recent decades researchers have recognized that emotions also motivate and focus individuals and moderate how they make decisions. Initial research into emotions divided these simply into positive and negative, but this perspective has largely been displaced in political psychology by an emphasis on the impact of distinct emotions; among these, anxiety has received the most scholarly attention, rivaled only by anger. The causes of anxiety, also termed fear and unease, are diverse, but research highlights certain attributes of situational evaluation such as low self-control, low certainty, and low external agency. Once present, anxiety has important consequences for decision-making. First, anxiety increases how much information individuals seek out, a pattern of behavior meant to reduce uncertainty. Second, anxiety decreases heuristic processing and weakens the reliance of underlying convictions in determining decisions. Instead, anxious individuals are more likely to think systematically about choices they face. Importantly, anxiety can affect choices and decisions even if they are not directly related to what caused anxiety to emerge, that is, if anxiety is incidental rather than integral. In addition to influencing how people make decisions, anxiety may also directly influence the decisions individuals make. Thus, anxiety increases risk aversion, leading individuals to choose safer paths of action. Anxiety also makes individuals less likely to take action at all, with the most common response being withdrawal and passivity. Applied to political decision-making, anxiety may have the important consequence of decreasing political participation. Research into the role of anxiety in decision-making is fast moving and vibrant, but to become fully established it needs to ensure rigor in measurement and research design; this will require considerable methodological research. Substantively, future research should focus on the effects of elite messages on anxiety as well as on how anxiety influences citizen attitudes and evaluations.

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