Imagine you are the boss of an organization, a local politician or the prime minister of your country. You want to make good decisions right? To come to a good decision, it is important to know what the preferences of your people are. Scientists from Delft University of Technology have now developed a new advanced method to investigate the preferences of larger groups of people on government decisions. This method is called Participatory Value Evaluation, in short PVE. In the video and pages below you will learn more about this method.
The essence of a PVE is that participants in an (online) experiment are confronted with a restriction (e.g. a government budget or a sustainability objective to be achieved) and a number of possible policy options, including the effects of the policy options. On the one hand, PVE is a policy evaluation tool. On the basis of the choices made by participants in the PVE, we can determine the social costs and benefits of various policy options and determine the optimal portfolio of projects. On the other hand, PVE is an instrument to facilitate mass participation by citizens. Citizens like the fact that the PVE invites them to make a strategic choice that is close to the dilemma policy makers face.