Ballangé, Aliénor.,“Addressing Self-Exclusion in Upscaled Mini-Publics: Evidence from CoFE’s European Citizens’ Panels”, Journal of Deliberative Democracy 21(1), 2025.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.16997/jdd.1758

Abstract

This article examines how institutional design shapes patterns of self-exclusion in upscaled mini-publics, focusing on the European Citizens’ Panels (ECPs) of the Conference on the Future of Europe (2021–2022). When mini-publics are scaled to regional or transnational levels, structural inequalities related to education, gender, and social background are often amplified – especially when citizens are asked to deliberate on complex or unfamiliar issues. The analysis distinguishes between two types of self-exclusion: deferential, when participants internalize social hierarchies about who is entitled to speak; and epistemic, when they refrain from contributing due to a perceived lack of knowledge. These dynamics disproportionately affect subordinated groups, such as women, young people, and the less formally educated. Drawing on deliberative democratic theory and qualitative analysis of the ECPs, the article shows that self-exclusion is not inevitable but shaped by specific design choices. Overly technical materials and abrupt topic allocation can increase epistemic insecurity, whereas gradual and inclusive facilitation can reduce it. The article concludes that fostering epistemic inclusion requires targeted design interventions – most notably, preparatory training that offers accessible, modular content to help less confident participants process the issues at stake and feel entitled to deliberate on them.

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