Methodology

The public consultation meeting was a part of an extensive deliberative democracy project. The project as a whole can be divided into six phases as can be seen on the picture below. First, a random sample of people from the National Registry and the online panel of the Social Science Research Institute answered an opinion poll. Respondents were invited to take part in a consultation meeting and those who accepted received information about the topics to be discussed there. The discussions took place in Laugardalshöll on the 9th and 10th of November. At the beginning of the round table, participants filled out a questionnaire to gage their attitude towards the topics. Participants were then split into groups to discuss the topics in a systematic manner, taking the pros and cons into account. The discussions on each table were facilitated by a group moderator. The meeting also provided an opportunity for participants to ask experts about each topic. Following the discussions, participants took another opinion poll to see whether their attitudes had changed after further examining and discussing the topics.

All group discussions were recorded and secretaries took down the main points discussed at each table.