Hostname: page-component-5f56664f6-2gss9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-05-07T13:58:20.965Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Does the Meeting Style Matter? The Effects of Exposure to Participatory and Deliberative School Board Meetings

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 May 2021

JONATHAN E. COLLINS Open the ORCID record for JONATHAN E. COLLINS [Opens in a new window]
JONATHAN E. COLLINS*
Affiliation:
Brown University
*
Jonathan Collins, Assistant Professor, Education Department, Brown University, [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Would public meetings incite more civic engagement if they were structured in ways that are simply more engaging? I addressed this question by conducting an original survey with an oversample of racial and ethnic minorities and individuals from low-income households. The survey featured a randomized experiment in which each study participant was shown a short clip of an actual school board meeting that was (1) a standard meeting with no public participation, (2) a meeting with public participation, or (3) a meeting with deliberation (public participation followed by a reasoned response from the school board). The experience of viewing the more participatory and deliberative school board meetings led to increased trust in local officials and a stronger willingness to attend school board meetings in the future. This study has significant implications for civic engagement, local politics, and public school governance.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 115 , Issue 3 , August 2021 , pp. 790 - 804
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the American Political Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Adams, Brian. 2004. “Public Meetings and the Democratic Process.” Public Administration Review 64 (1): 43–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anzia, Sarah F. 2013. Timing and Turnout: How Off-cycle Elections Favor Organized Groups. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Asen, Robert. 2015. Democracy, Deliberation, and Education. University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press.Google Scholar
Baiocchi, Gianpaolo. 2005. Militants and Citizens: The Politics of Participatory Democracy in Porto Alegre. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baiocchi, Gianpaolo, and Ganuza, Ernesto. 2014. “Participatory Budgeting as if Emancipation Mattered.” Politics & Society 42 (1): 29–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baiocchi, Gianpaolo, Patrick, Heller, and Silva, Marcelo K.. 2020. Bootstrapping Democracy: Transforming Local Governance and Civil Society in Brazil. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barreto, Matt. 2010. Ethnic Cues: The Role of Shared Ethnicity in Latino Political Participation. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berry, Christopher R., and Howell, William G.. 2007. “Accountability and Local Elections: Rethinking Retrospective Voting.” The Journal of Politics 69 (3): 844–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bobo, Lawrence, and Gilliam, Franklin D. Jr. (1990). “Race, Sociopolitical Participation, and Black Empowerment.” The American Political Science Review 84 (2): 377–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bryan, Frank M. 2004. Real Democracy: The New England Town Meeting and How It Works. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Carpini, Michael X. Delli, Cook, Fay Lomax, and Jacobs, Lawrence R.. 2004. “Public Deliberation, Discursive Participation, and Citizen Engagement: A Review of the Empirical Literature.” Annual Review of Political Science 7: 315–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chambers, Simone. 2009. “Rhetoric and the Public Sphere: Has Deliberative Democracy Abandoned Mass Democracy?” Political Theory 37 (3): 323–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, Joshua. 1989. “Deliberation and Democratic Legitimacy.” In The Good Polity: Normative Analysis of the State, eds. Hamlin, Alan and Petit, Phillip, 68–91. New York: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Collins, Jonathan. 2018. “Urban Representation through Deliberation: A Theory and Test of Deliberative Democracy at the Local Level.” Journal of Urban Affairs 40 (7): 952–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collins, Jonathan E. 2019. “Do Teachers Want Democracy? Deliberative Culture and Teachers’ Evaluations of Schools.” Urban Affairs Review 56 (5): 1529–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collins, Jonathan E. 2021. “Replication Data for: Does the Meeting Style Matter? The Effects of Exposure to Participatory and Deliberative School Board Meetings.” Harvard Dataverse. Dataset. https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/K04IOD.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collins, Jonathan, Lucero, Eddie, and Trounstine, Jessica. 2020. “Will Concurrent Elections Reshape the Electorate?” California Journal of Politics and Policy 12 (1). https://doi.org/10.5070/P2cjpp1150416.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Tocqueville, Alexis. 1840. Democracy in America. Philadelphia: Saunders and Otley.Google Scholar
Einstein, Katherine Levine, Glick, David M., and Palmer, Maxwell. 2019. Neighborhood Defenders: Participatory Politics and America’s Housing Crisis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Enos, Ryan D. 2016. “What the Demolition of Public Housing Teaches Us about the Effect of Racial Threat on Political Behavior.” American Journal of Political Science 60 (1): 123–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Esterling, Kevin M., Fung, Archon, and Lee, Taeku. 2015. “How Much Disagreement Is Good for Democratic Deliberation?” Political Communication 32 (4): 529–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fishkin, James S. 2011. When the People Speak: Deliberative Democracy and Public Consultation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flavin, Patrick, and Hartney, Michael T.. 2017. “Racial Inequality in Democratic Accountability: Evidence from Retrospective Voting in Local Elections.” American Journal of Political Science 61 (3): 684–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frasure-Yokley, Lorrie. 2015. Racial and Ethnic Politics in American Suburbs. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fung, Archon. 2004. Empowered Participation: Reinventing Urban Democracy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Fung, Archon. 2006. “Varieties of Participation in Complex Governance.” Public Administration Review 66 (s1): 66–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fung, Archon. 2007. “Minipublics: Deliberative Designs and Their Consequences.” In Deliberation, Participation and Democracy, ed. Rosenberg, Shawn W., 159–83. London: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fung, Archon, and Wright, Erik Olin. 2003. Deepening Democracy: Institutional Innovations in Empowered Participatory Governance. Brooklyn, NY: Verso.Google Scholar
Gaines, Brian J., Kuklinski, James H., and Quirk, Paul J.. 2007. “The Logic of the Survey Experiment Reexamined.” Political Analysis 15 (1): 1–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garcia-Bedolla, Lisa. 2005. Fluid Borders: Latino Power, Identity, and Politics in Los Angeles. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gastil, John. 2000. By Popular Demand: Revitalizing Representative Democracy through Deliberative Elections. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Gastil, John. 2018. “The Lessons and Limitations of Experiments in Democratic Deliberation.” Annual Review of Law and Social Science 14: 271–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gastil, John, and Dillard, James P.. 1999. “Increasing Political Sophistication through Public Deliberation.” Political Communication 16 (1): 3–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gutmann, Amy, and Thompson, Dennis F.. 2004. Why Deliberative Democracy? Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hajnal, Zoltan L. 2010. America’s Uneven Democracy: Race, Turnout, and Representation in City Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hajnal, Zoltan, and Trounstine, Jessica. 2005. “Where Turnout Matters: The Consequences of Uneven Turnout in City Politics.” The Journal of Politics 67 (2): 515–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hankinson, Michael. 2018. “When Do Renters Behave Like Homeowners? High Rent, Price Anxiety, and NIMBYism.” American Political Science Review 112 (3): 473–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henig, Jeffrey R., Hula, Richard C., Orr, Marion, and Pedescleaux, Desiree S.. 1999. The Color of School Reform: Race, Politics, and the Challenge of Urban Education. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Henig, Jeffrey R., Jacobsen, Rebecca, and Reckhow, Sarah. 2019. Outside Money in School Board Elections: The Nationalization of Education Politics. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.Google Scholar
Hero, Rodney E. 2007. Racial Diversity and Social Capital: Equality and Community in America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hess, Frederick M. 2011. Spinning Wheels: The Politics of Urban School Reform. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Hochschild, Jennifer L. 2005. “What School Boards Can and Cannot (or Will Not) Accomplish.” In Besieged: School Boards and the Future of Education Politics, ed. Howell, William, 324–38. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Hochschild, Jennifer L., and Scovronick, Nathan. 2003. The American Dream and the Public Schools. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Karpowitz, Christopher F., and Mendelberg, Tali. 2014. The Silent Sex: Gender, Deliberation, and Institutions. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Karpowitz, Christopher F., and Raphael, Chad. 2014. Deliberation, Democracy, and Civic Forums: Improving Equality and Publicity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kogan, Vladimir, Lavertu, Stéphane, and Peskowitz, Zachary. 2016. “Do School Report Cards Produce Accountability through the Ballot Box?” Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 35 (3): 639–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leighley, Jan E. 2001. Strength in Numbers? The Political Mobilization of Racial and Ethnic Minorities. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Lerman, Amy E, and Vesla M., Weaver. 2014. Arresting Citizenship: The Democratic Consequences of American Crime Control. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luskin, Robert C., Fishkin, James S., and Jowell, Roger. 2002. “Considered Opinions: Deliberative Polling in Britain.” British Journal of Political Science 32 (3): 455–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mansbridge, Jane J. 1980. Beyond Adversary Democracy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Mendelberg, Tali, and Oleske, John 2000. Race and Public Deliberation. Political Communication 17 (2): 169–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Michener, Jamila. 2018. Fragmented Democracy: Medicaid, Federalism, and Unequal Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Min, Seong-Jae. 2007. “Online vs. Face-to-Face Deliberation: Effects on Civic Engagement.” Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 12 (4): 1369–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moe, Terry M. 2011. Special Interest: Teachers Unions and America’s Public Schools. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Moffitt, Susan L. 2014. Making Policy Public: Participatory Bureaucracy in American Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morel, Domingo. 2018. Takeover: Race, Education, and American Democracy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neblo, Michael A., Esterling, Kevin M., Kennedy, Ryan P., David, M. J. Lazer, and Sokhey, Anand E.. 2010. “Who Wants to Deliberate—and Why?” American Political Science Review 104 (3): 566–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neblo, Michael A., Esterling, Kevin M., and David, M. J. Lazer. 2018. Politics with the People: Building A Directly Representative Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nuamah, Sally A. 2020. “The Cost of Participating while Poor and Black: Toward a Theory of Collective Participatory Debt.” Perspectives on Politics, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537592720003576.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oliver, J. Eric. 2000. “City Size and Civic Involvement in Metropolitan America.” American Political Science Review 94 (2): 361–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orr, Marion. 1999. Black Social Capital: The Politics of School Reform in Baltimore, 1986–1998. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.Google Scholar
Orr, Marion, and Rogers, John. 2011. Public Engagement for Public Education: Joining Forces to Revitalize Democracy and Equalize Schools. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Page, Benjamin I., and Shapiro, Robert Y.. 1983. “Effects of Public Opinion on Policy.” The American Political Science Review 77 (1): 175–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parkinson, John. 2006. Deliberating in the Real World: Problems of Legitimacy in Deliberative Democracy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parkinson, John, and Mansbridge, Jane, eds. 2012. Deliberative Systems: Deliberative Democracy at the Large Scale. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parthasarathy, Ramya, Rao, Vijayendra, and Palaniswamy, Nethra. 2019. “Deliberative Democracy in an Unequal World: A Text-as-Data Study of South India’s Village Assemblies.” The American Political Science Review 113 (3): 623–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pateman, Carole. 1970. Participation and Democratic Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pateman, Carole. 2012. “Participatory Democracy Revisited.” Perspectives on Politics 10 (1): 7–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Payson, Julia A. 2017. “When Are Local Incumbents Held Accountable for Government Performance? Evidence from US School Districts.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 42 (3): 421–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pew Research Center. 2019. “Public’s 2019 Priorities: Economy, Health Care, Education and Security All Near Top of List.” Pew Research Center, January 24, 2019. https://www.people-press.org/2019/01/24/publics-2019-priorities-economy-health-care-education-and-security-all-near-top-of-list/.Google Scholar
Pupillo, Teresa Dale. 1993. “The Changing Weather Forecast: Government in the Sunshine in the 1990’s—An Analysis of State Sunshine Laws.” Washington University Law Quarterly 71 (4): 1165–88.Google Scholar
Putnam, Robert D. 2000. Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon and Schuster.Google Scholar
Schaffner, Brian F., Rhodes, Jesse H., and La Raja, Raymond J.. 2020. Hometown Inequality: Race, Class, and Representation in American Local Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skocpol, Theda, and Fiorina, Morris P., eds. 1999. Civic Engagement in American Democracy. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Smith, Graham, and Wales, Corinne. 2000. “Citizens’ Juries and Deliberative Democracy.” Political Studies 48 (1): 51–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steiner, Jürg, Bächtiger, André, Spörndli, Markus, and Steenbergen, Marco R.. 2004. Deliberative Politics in Action: Analyzing Parliamentary Discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Stone, Clarence N. 2001. “Civic Capacity and Urban Education.” Urban Affairs Review 36 (5): 595–619.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tate, Katherine. 1991. “Black Political Participation in the 1984 and 1988 Presidential Elections.” The American Political Science Review 85 (4): 1159–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tracy, Karen. 2011. Challenges of Ordinary Democracy: A Case Study in Deliberation and Dissent. University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press.Google Scholar
Trounstine, Jessica. 2018. Segregation by Design: Local Politics and Inequality in American Cities. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Verba, Sidney, and Nie, Norman H.. 1972. Participation in America: Political Democracy and Social Equality. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Verba, Sidney, Schlozman, Kay Lehman, Brady, Henry, and Nie, Norman H.. 1993. “Race, Ethnicity and Political Resources: Participation in the United States.” British Journal of Political Science 23 (4): 453–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wampler, Brian. 2007. Participatory Budgeting in Brazil: Contestation, Cooperation, and Accountability. University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press.Google Scholar
Warren, Mark E., and Gastil, John. 2015. “Can Deliberative Minipublics Address the Cognitive Challenges of Democratic Citizenship?” The Journal of Politics 77 (2): 562–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Warshaw, Christopher. 2019. “Local Elections and Representation in the United States.” Annual Review of Political Science 22: 461–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wirt, Frederick M., and Kirst, Michael W.. 1997. The Political Dynamics of American Education. Berkeley, CA: McCutchan Publishing Corporation.Google Scholar
Wright, Scott, and Street, John. 2007. “Democracy, Deliberation, and Design: The Case of Online Discussion Forums.” New Media & Society 9 (5): 849–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zimmerman, Joseph Francis. 1999. The New England Town Meeting: Democracy in Action. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: Link

Collins Dataset

Dataset

https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/K04IOD
Link
Supplementary material: File

Collins supplementary material

Appendices A-B

Download Collins supplementary material(File)
File 18.2 KB
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.