In the choice and design of participatory institutions, do having different goals in mind matter? We know that participatory institutions may perform quite different, even contradictory roles (Dean, 2017; Mayka and Abbott, 2023) and some research has examined whether there is an empirical correspondence between the proclaimed goals of these institutions and their working characteristics. However, we do not know whether this partial correspondence also exists in the minds of their main promoters, political elites.

We analyse this question using a survey to political elites developed (2022-2023) in six European countries (n=1053). We analyze the influence of the most important participatory goals a participatory process should aim to (i.e. empower citizens, inform elite, social justice, transparency) in two sets of variables: a scale assessing the perceived effectiveness of several participatory institutions (i.e. participatory budgeting, advisory councils, minipublics and referenda), as well as more specific evaluation of the most desirable characteristics that a deliberative event should have (i.e. openness, online, binding, randomization). The analyses control for several elite traits (country, territorial level, experience or ideology, among others).