The Discursive Functions of Deliberative Voting

Abstract

This study aims to build on Moore and O'Doherty's (2014) proposal to integrate deliberative voting procedures into deliberative processes. Deliberative voting has been proposed to recognize collective endpoints of deliberation and solicit key reasons from participants for supporting (or rejecting) collective decisions. This article further develops the theoretical understanding of the function of embedding voting procedures in deliberative processes. Using discursive psychological analysis, we provide an analysis of transcripts from a public deliberation event on cancer drug funding policy to gain a deeper understanding of the discursive dynamics of deliberative voting. We investigate how participants use deliberative voting as a communication tool to signal three types of disagreement: actual, nuanced, and marginal. We pay particular attention to the role of the facilitator in the deliberative voting process and the role of the voting process in shaping the outputs of the deliberation. Finally, we recommend deliberation practitioners and facilitators should engage in reflexive investigation into how power operates within deliberative voting and deliberation events broadly.