Assisting voters, improving knowledge: The effects of a mini-public voting aid in a Swiss popular vote

The Citizens' Initiative Review (CIR) – a randomly selected deliberative mini-public implemented for the first time in Oregon back in 2008, and applied ever since seventeen times around the globe – integrates ordinary citizens in opinion-formation ahead of a direct-democratic popular vote. Its output is a succinct statement on the topic of a forthcoming popular vote. Yet there are few studies, beyond the context of state-level direct-democratic votes in the US, exploring the impact of the CIR statement on the larger public. Drawing upon a recent CIR pilot in Switzerland, the paper explores the effects of the CIR statement on the propensity of voters to take part in a real-world popular vote and on the process of opinion formation. The pilot was conducted in the town of Sion, in November 2019, four months ahead a Swiss-wide popular vote on an initiative on affordable housing. The results of our survey experiment show substantial changes in the respondents’ position on the topic of the popular initiative and an increased initiative-relevant knowledge. The paper concludes that the CIR model of mini-public lives up to its purported potential effects on the larger public.