Deliberative Democracy in an Unequal World: A Text-As-Data Analysis of South India's Village Assemblies
This paper opens the "black box" of deliberation to examine the gendered and status-based patterns of influence
Abstract
The resurgence of deliberative institutions in the developing world has prompted a renewed interest in the dynamics of citizen engagement. Using text-as-data methods on an original corpus of village assembly transcripts from rural Tamil Nadu, India, this paper opens the 바카라 사이트渂lack box바카라 사이트� of deliberation to examine the gendered and status-based patterns of influence. Drawing on normative theories of deliberation, this analysis identifies a set of clear empirical standards for 바카라 사이트済ood바카라 사이트� deliberation, based on an individual바카라 사이트檚 ability both to speak and be heard, and uses natural language processing methods to generate these measures. The study first shows that these assemblies are not mere 바카라 사이트渢alking shop바카라 사이트� for state officials to bluster and read banal announcements, but rather, provide opportunities for citizens to challenge their elected officials, demand transparency, and provide information about authentic local development needs. Second, the study finds that across multiple measures of deliberative influence, women are at a disadvantage relative to men; women are less likely to speak, set the agenda, and receive a relevant response from state officials. Finally, the paper shows that although quotas for women on village councils have little impact on the likelihood that they speak, they do improve the likelihood that female citizens are heard.
This is an output of the World Bank바카라 사이트檚 Strategic Research Program
Citation
Parthasarathy, R., N. Palaniswamy, and Vijayendra Rao. (2019). Deliberative Democracy in an Unequal World: A Text-As-Data Study of South India바카라 사이트檚 Village Assemblies. American Political Science Review, 113(3), 623-640. doi:10.1017/S0003055419000182