Elstub, S., Carrick, J. orcid.org/0000-0002-2106-9643 and Khoban, Z. (2021) Democratic Innovation in the Scottish Parliament: An Evaluation of Committee Mini-Publics. Scottish Affairs, 30 (4). pp. 493-521. ISSN 0966-0356
Abstract
When the Scottish Parliament was established the intention of the founders was to make it a more innovative, participatory, and deliberative legislature than the UK had experienced before. Research suggests that attempts to achieve these aspirations were short-lived. Recently, a Commission on Parliamentary Reform (2017) was established to add fresh impetus to this mission. Its recommendations included the running of inhouse mini-publics to support the committee system. In 2019 the Scottish Parliament’s Citizen Engagement Unit ran their first mini-publics: a Citizens' Jury on land management and the natural environment for the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee, and a series of Citizens’ Panels on the future of primary care for the Health and Sport Committee. This paper evaluates their design and implementation against key norms of deliberative democracy and the expectations of the reform committee, to establish whether the Scottish Parliament is now adopting a meaningful ‘new politics’. We analyse primary data collected from a mixed method study that included structured participant surveys, semi-structured interviews with parliamentary staff, committee members, and expert witnesses; supplemented with non-participant observations and secondary data sources. We conclude with suggestions to enable mini-publics to be embedded in the committee system more permanently.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2021 Edinburgh University Press. This is an author-produced version of a paper subsequently published in Scottish Affairs. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | Legislatures; new politics; mini-publics; deliberative democracy; democratic innovation; Parliamentary Committees |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Department of Politics and International Relations (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 21 Apr 2023 13:45 |
Last Modified: | 21 Apr 2023 13:45 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Edinburgh University Press |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.3366/scot.2021.0386 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:198171 |