Greek Political Party Uses Deliberative Primary to Select Mayoral Candidate

By David Litvak

James Fishkin’s celebrated deliberative polling process was used in the the Greek municipality of Marousi in June 2006 to actually select the candidate of one of the main parties, the PASOK, in the upcoming mayoral elections. An assembly of 160 citizens selected at random amongst the municipality’s entire citizenry assembled for a 10 hour day to deliberate on potential candidates.

Each of The PASOK’s candidates for mayor at Marousi had to defend their positions. The randomly selected assemblage of citizens were well equipped to question and evaluate them however. Previous to participating in the selection process, they were given information on 19 issues of concern to the people of the municipality. They were also polled before the process, and initially had better opinions of the most well known candidates. After the deliberative process, however, they ended up selecting a lesser known candidate, Alexandris Panagiotis.

This demonstrates, once again, that the process of scientific deliberative polling, here adding the extra incentive of having actual power, has significant muscle to alter initially superficial preferences and allows for more in-depth judgment on issues, or, in this case, candidates.

Using a deliberative process as an alternative to a primary – in effect making it a deliberative primary – was a first in history. Judging by the results, it won’t be the last. The PASOK used this process as an experimental test, but the party leader also encouraged and favored it, not the least, by making the citizens decision binding.

Additionally, the process adds to the party’s and its candidate’s legitimacy, because citizens from all political affiliations participated. They only had to be eligible to vote to have a chance of being selected. This indicated the party’s commitment to democracy. It also challenges the populist and elitist traditions, respectively of mass primaries and candidate selection by the party leaders, in that the other parties’ candidates, simply put, cannot claim to have the same legitimacy as the PASOK’s candidate who was selected through a deliberative primary.

Additional information can be found at:

Center for Deliberative Democracy at Stanford University : http://cdd.stanford.edu/polls/greece/

Institute of Statistics of the Athens University of Economics and Business :  http://www.aueb.gr/statistical-institute/deliberative-polling/index_en.htm