A policy impact tool: Measuring the policy impact of public participation in deliberative e‐rulemaking

This paper aims to integrate epistemic versions of deliberative democracy into policy studies in order to develop a policy impact tool (PIT) for e‐rulemaking initiatives. In building its argumentation, the paper assesses and engages with epistemic democracy and online deliberation design while considering policy‐related dilemmas and the specific challenges of deliberative e‐rulemaking. The PIT aims to introduce a concise procedure along with a number of basic indicators that can be used to understand and evaluate the quality of discourse and the policy potential of deliberative e‐rulemaking. In order to build this tool, (a) we rely on the importance of comparative text analysis; (b) we develop a threads index, which will categorize citizens' input in the major arguments spelt out in the deliberation; (c) we propose argumentation and discourse analysis to evaluate arguments vis a vis their justification and identify the policy‐valuable arguments and; (d) we provide a concise procedure and the benchmark for the assessment of the policy potential and impact of the preceding deliberation.