The tragedy of citizen deliberation – two cases of participatory technology assessment

Despite welcoming rhetoric and increased practice of citizen participation in S&T governance, there is little evidence of the political impact of such processes. In this paper I will analyse how the roadblocks to translating the results of citizen participation to effective policy making manifested in the context of two transnational participatory technology assessment projects, global-level World Wide Views on Global Warming (WWViews) and EU-level Citizen Visions of on Science, Technology and Innovation (CIVISTI). Resulting from the analysis, three types of roadblocks are identified: (1) diffuse understanding of the usability of deliberation as a component of policy making (cognitive level); (2) inadequate infrastructures for facilitating the translation of public-interest oriented deliberations into effective public policy (structural level); (3) inadequate resources and skills in deliberative bodies for effective social outreach of participatory processes (operational level). The paper contributes to more effective pTA by proposing a new ‘guiding vision’ for citizen deliberations, anticipating more influential policy pathways and proposing new skills for pTA.