Creating Better Citizens? Effects of a Model Citizens' Assembly on Student Political Attitudes and Behavior

Abstract

Perceiving political engagement to be dangerously low among American citizens, many political science professors in recent years have attempted to promote engagement and ''healthier'' political attitudes. The effectiveness of these efforts appears variable and generally quite modest. Following the model of Canadian citizens' assemblies, we taught a course called Citizens' Assembly on Critical Thinking about the United States (CACTUS) in spring 2008 in which students considered the question: ''Is it time to change the way we elect the President of the United States?'' Because the course employs a form of deliberative democracy CACTUS might be anticipated to encourage engagement. We use a pre-post survey design to measure attitudes of both CACTUS (treatment group) and other (comparison groups) students to examine this. We find that both CACTUS and students enrolled in other political science courses experienced modest growth in their political engagement. More notably, CACTUS students became more extreme in their party identification, ideology, and issue positions and became more supportive of the existing electoral system. We suspect these findings are attributable to the nature and content of CACTUS. Our findings have important implications for future efforts to promote political engagement and for measuring the effects of those efforts. Keywords citizens' assemblies, civic engagement, deliberative democracy, political engagement Masses make noise, citizens deliberate; masses behave, citizens act; masses collide and intersect, citizens engage, share and contribute. At the moment when masses start deliberating, acting, sharing, and contributing, they cease to be masses and become citizens. Only then do they ''participate.'' (Barber 1984, 155) How to transform masses into citizens in an age of declining political engagement is widely discussed by both politicians and political scientists. Among the proposed solutions is deliberative democracy both as means and end: Masses become citizens by learning how to deliberate and practice deliberation as a part of political life. Advocates of deliberative democracy assume that by participating in such

Problems and challenges for the Politics of Education before the change of prominence experienced by educational actors

“…Nevertheless, our role as educators forces us to help them implement the willingness and civic capacity to become involved in the wellbeing of society, its institutions and its processes; hence the efforts made by numerous teachers to promote a critical spirit as well as reasonable political attitudes in their students. Unfortunately, the results have been rather modest sometimes, as shown, amongst others, by a research initiative where the implementation of a citizens' assembly model with a group of students seeking to break the political apathy only achieved a modest increase of their civic commitment level (Gershtenson, Rainey Jr. & Rainey, 2010).…”

Simulations Build Efficacy: Empirical Results from a Four-Week Congressional Simulation

“…Studies have found increased levels of internal efficacy among students participating in congressional simulations (Bernstein 2008;Lay and Smarick 2006), campaign simulations (Caruson 2005;Mariani 2007), and a model citizens' assembly (Gershtenson, Rainey, and Rainey 2010). At the same time, the effect of a simulation on efficacy may be limited by a ''ceiling effect'' for students who already view themselves as well prepared for political activity (Lay and Smarick 2006, 141).…”

“…Although the general consensus is that simulations improve student learning, some studies suggest that the impact of simulations on learning can be small (Baranowski and Weir 2010) and the benefits temporary (Bernstein and Meizlish 2003). Importantly, studies have also found that the benefits of simulations often vary depending on students' characteristics (Bernstein 2008) and their starting levels of political engagement (see Gershtenson, Rainey, and Rainey 2010;Robinson et al 1996as cited in Wheeler 2006.…”

“…A study by Gershtenson, Rainey, and Rainey (2010) found that students participating in a model citizens' assembly became more ideological, more partisan, and more supportive of the political system. In addition, a senate office simulation by Lay and Smarick (2006) found that students expressed lower levels of cynicism about politics as a result of the simulation.…”

Registering to Vote Is Easy, Right? Active Learning and Attitudes About Voter Registration

“…To boost political efficacy and, therefore, the likelihood of voting, Morrell (2005) had students deliberate with each other about important political matters. Deliberation may also increase political knowledge and pique political interest (Gershtenson, Rainey, and Rainey 2010). Structured political dialogue as well as reading about current events have also been found to promote civic engagement (Huerta and Jozwiak 2008;Longo, Drury, and Battistoni 2006).…”