Paper published in PLoS ONE on "The Big Participatory Value Evaluation" by Niek Mouter, José Ignacio Hernández and Anatol Itten

A paper was published about PVE in PLoS ONE named "Public participation in crisis policymaking. How 30,000 Dutch citizens advised their government on relaxing COVID-19 lockdown measures" written by Niek Mouter, José Ignacio Hernández and Anatol Itten

Last year 30,000 people were allowed to express their preferences on relaxation of COVID-19 lockdown measures. They overwhelmingly advised against overloading of the healthcare system, and favoured decisions that lead to unity, not division.

In the paper, the authors discuss how a PVE differs from other participatory methods and preference elicitation methods, what kinds of results are produced by a PVE and how participants experienced becoming involved in policy making through participating in a PVE. The research showed that letting citizens experience intricate government dilemmas does not only improve their understanding of the social, health and economic impacts of COVID-19 measures, it also sharpens political ideas, arguments and values.