Striving for Binding Results

Description

President Macron promised that all proposals from the Citizens’ Climate Convention would be put to a parliamentary vote or a referendum. In practice, however, parliament debated a climate bill that included fewer than half of the proposals, and ultimately, only 10% were adopted. The majority of CCAs follow this pattern.

In a well-facilitated participatory process, a representative mini-public elaborates reasonable and even far-reaching proposals. However, when it comes to the relevant institutional bodies, these proposals tend to be cherry-picked, watered down, or rejected. This diluted outcome does not align with the rich participation established during the assembly and often leads to disenchantment and anger. A considerable challenge lies in securing the long-term implementation of proposals. One solution is “political embedding”, which considers how political actors might interact given their interests and political context in the assembly design. Another approach is to combine participatory and direct democracy. Instead of increasing the legitimacy of CCA proposals through the parliament, they could be put to a legally binding referendum.

How-To & Examples

Linking CCAs with referendums: in Bavaria, a referendum is an instrument of direct democracy that enables citizens to initiate changes to legislation. If a popular referendum receives enough signatures and the state parliament rejects it, a popular vote follows. This is legally binding. Thus, the referendum on ‘Biodiversity & Beauty of Nature’ obtained laws mandating more biodiversity-friendly agricultural practices and more. The collection of signatures for a proposal put forward by a board alliance of NGOs could be replaced by a citizen assembly. Thereby, a powerful instrument of direct democracy would legitimise participatory deliberation.

In Germany, the nationwide pilot Climate meets local government sets up CCAs to develop recommendations that are then put to binding council referendums Klima und Demokratie, Klima trifft Kommune

In Austria the discrepancy between empowering experience and lack of political uptake prompted participants to form an association and campaign for the implementation of their recommendations acting as ambassadors of democratisation and climate justice even without government support.

Ensure commitment to follow-up by the commissioning authority, governments, and administrations from the beginning. Explain which proposals are implemented and how, and why others are rejected or modified, and monitor effects transparently. KNOCA guidance on follow-up

Literature & Sources

Mellier, Claire and Rich Wilson (2020): Getting Climate Citizens’ Assemblies Right. Carnegie Europe.https://carnegieendowment.org/research/2020/11/getting-climate-citizens-assemblies-righ