Comparative Analysis of the Deliberative Effects of Face-to-Face and Online Public Deliberation: Focusing on the Cases of Public Deliberation on Gyeonggi Provincial Government Policies in 2019 and 2020

Comparative Analysis of the Deliberative Effects of Face-to-Face and Online Public Deliberation: Focusing on the Cases of Public Deliberation on Gyeonggi Provincial Government Policies in 2019 and 2020

This study seeks to provide empirical evidence for its usability by comparing and analyzing the deliberative effects of online public deliberation, which is growing as a new type of public deliberation, with the deliberative effects of traditional face-to-face public deliberation. In this study, the 2019 Gyeonggi provincial government policy face-to-face public deliberation and the 2020 Gyeonggi provincial government policy online public deliberation, which were conducted with the same organizer, host, and agenda, were analyzed. As a result of the analysis, online public deliberation showed similar deliberative effects to face-to-face public deliberation in terms of both individual and collective rationality. In particular, it showed high deliberative effects in terms of personal rationality. However, when limited to deliberative discussions, face-to-face discussions were still more effective than online discussions. The results of this analysis suggest that the use of online public deliberation can be actively considered in cases where expanding consensus on major policies and laying the foundation for consensus formation are needed, and that face-to-face public deliberation would be preferable in matters that require collective decision-making through in-depth deliberation.