Replication Data for: Catching the “deliberative wave”? How (disaffected) citizens assess deliberative citizen forums

A “deliberative wave” with increasing uses of deliberative citizen forums (DCFs) is sweeping the globe. Whereas DCF enthusiasts claim that they represent appropriate tools to re-connect citizens with politics and demand a stronger empowerment of DCFs, critics argue that they will reduce rather than increase democratic legitimacy. This letter sheds new light on roles of DCFs in democratic system, with a particular eye on disaffected citizens. Drawing on a conjoint experiment with a representative sample of non-participating German citizens, it shows that citizens in general challenge notions of strong empowerment of DCFs. They prefer DCFs that are limited to policy advise, collaborate with legacy institutions and include extra provisions (such as large size or clear majorities). By contrast, even though disaffected citizens are more open to empowerment and decoupling of DCFs compared to allegiant citizens, this not imply that they are generally in favour of such design features (in fact, they are mostly indifferent via-à-vis empowerment and decoupling). These findings have important ramifications for democratic designing.