An Agent-Based Model of Deliberative Democracy and Polarization

Abstract

In this paper, we examined the effect of deliberative democracy on polarization of opinion. Through three cases analyses, we find that deliberative democracy has two major components – provision of information and group discussion. Polarization of opinion can be explained by several theories: social identity theory (Tajfel, 1978), social comparison (Isenberg, 1986), and confirmation bias (Kahneman, 2012). We constructed a deliberative democracy model that reflected these mechanisms of polarization. We found that deliberative democracy actually decreased polarization of opinion when group discussion was a strong factor. Our study provides guidelines for institutional design incorporating deliberative democracy, with emphasis on composition of unbiased group discussions.

Keywords: deliberative democracy, polarization, social identity theory, social comparison, conformation bias, group discussion