Enabling people to have a say in the decisions that affect them, between elections is a great way to strengthen democracy. Such processes have been seen to increase social cohesion by bringing together communities, sometimes hostile, who do not often interact with each other and building relationships between them.
A 2019 study shows that deliberative processes enable people to work together as a result of new relationships and better understanding of each other’s different perspectives. Empirical research has shown that the sorts of echo chambers that increase polarisation do not happen in deliberative situations. There is also evidence to suggest that deliberation can be an effective way to overcome ethnic, religious, or ideological divisions between groups.