Learning in Brussels: A mixed approach to and innovations for learning in municipal council deliberations

The last years, participatory democracy has been studied and promoted in order to improve the efficacy and legitimacy of policy decisions made through representative democracy, especially at the local level. That said, public deliberation in representative councils or parliaments remains fundamental. Public deliberation may be conceptualized as a debate and discussion aimed at producing reasonable, well-informed opinions in which participants are willing to revise preferences in light of discussion, new information, and claims made by fellow participants (Chambers, 2003). Learning, defined as an individual and collective process involving the enduring acquisition or modification of cognitive constructs such as beliefs and preferences (Moyson, 2017), is central in such a conceptualization (Gregorcic & Krašovec, 2016). However, fundamental differences in interests, goals and values, or even in ways of interpreting situations, almost invariably make such learning processes very challenging in formal deliberative settings. What are the conditions and outcomes of learning in formal public deliberations within municipal councils, and how to model learning innovatively? To address this research question, a qualitative research design (Morse, 2003) was implemented: 13 semi-structured interviews were conducted with 17 Directors of the municipal administrations (i.e. civil servants) and municipal council Presidents (i.e. elected officials) in 13 municipalities in the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. The data were thematically analyzed (Paillé & Mucchielli, 2016). Then, the results were confirmed or nuanced based on four focus groups (Morgan, 1998) with the leaders of political parties in the municipal councils of two cities of the Region: Jette and Koekelberg. Our findings suggest that 18 factors account for the acquisition of knowledge and opinion changes – i.e., learning – among municipal councilors on three levels, namely: the macro level, which represents the general environment in which the municipal councils operate (9 factors); the meso level, which refers to the interpersonal relations among councilors (4 factors); and the micro level, which represents the factors at the individual level (5 factors). For example, the political and legal experience of councilors, the cordiality and trust among them, and the partisanship to a regional or national political family have emerged as important determinants of learning among municipal councilors. Understanding and taking these factors into consideration may help to develop more collaborative and constructive deliberative environments and, ultimately, to facilitate decision-making based on stronger, shared evidence (Riche et al., 2020). Based on these findings, we look at some innovations susceptible to model learning in municipal councils and conclude with an agenda for future research. This abstract could be hosted by the panel 1 about the “Effects of democratic innovations at the local level”.