Do Open Meetings Affect Deliberation? A Comparative Study of Political Meetings in Two Institutional Settings

Abstract

Transparency in politics is a core value of democracy, but has to be balanced against politicians’ need for deliberation arenas. Norway and Denmark have relatively similar political systems at the municipal level, but the balance between openness and deliberation is approached in different ways: Denmark emphasises closed political meetings and deliberation whereas Norway emphasises open meetings and democratic control. This comparative study of two Danish and two Norwegian municipalities shows that closed meetings make politicians more able to deliberate, and that mandatory open meetings move deliberation to informal meetings, and thus reduce the potential for consensus-based politics.