Citizens’ Assemblies and Democracy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonin Lacelle-Webster ◽  
Mark E. Warren
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Urban Planning ◽  
Electoral Reform ◽  
The Political ◽  
Single Issue ◽  
Political Resources ◽  
Electoral Democracy ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Political Ecologies ◽  
High Degree

Even as most citizens of electoral democracies remain strongly committed to democratic values, most electoral democracies are suffering from democratic deficits that are eroding their legitimacy. There are deficits of inclusion, as elected governments often poorly represent those who are less educated or less wealthy or who belong to ethnic, religious, racial, or other minorities. There are deficits of deliberativeness, as governments fail to learn from experts and everyday citizens alike. And, increasingly, there are deficits of collective capacity, often the result of governments that are gridlocked by polarization and unable to marshal the political resources to address tough problems, such as climate change and migration. Democracies do, however, reinvent themselves, often by supplementing the legacy institutions of electoral democracy with innovative ways of deepening democracy. Among the most promising innovations are citizens’ assemblies, a kind of deliberative minipublic comprised of lay citizens selected through near-random methods to represent a broader public. These bodies are typically tasked with learning and deliberating about a problem and providing recommendations. In contrast to sitting legislatures, citizens’ assemblies are typically convened for a single issue or purpose, and they are closely defined in their mandate. As of 2020, there were over 20 cases of citizens’ assemblies, covering a range of issues (e.g., electoral reform, climate change, abortion, and urban planning), enabling some generalization about their capacities and promise. Owing to their high degree of representativeness of ordinary citizens, their capacities to learn and deliberate, and their abilities to break through difficult or gridlocked issues, citizens’ assemblies have considerable promise to address democratic deficits and to deepen democracy when they are carefully inserted into the political ecologies of modern democracies.

scholarly journals Articulating Resistance: Agonism, Radical Democracy and Climate Change Activism

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 373-397 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Kakenmaster
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Radical Democracy ◽  
Democratic Politics ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Space ◽  
Political Theories ◽  
Political Problem ◽  
Political Ecologies ◽  
Climate Change Politics

This article analyses climate change activism through the framework of agonism. It discusses dominant political theories of climate change and then contrasts those with agonism. Next, it proceeds to analyse the logic of resistance in climate change activism, focusing on the 2017 People’s Climate March (PCM17) to understand how it articulated both its conceptions of the political and of climate change. This article argues that, in articulating its logic of resistance, the PCM17 served to depoliticise climate change by embracing a consensus-based conception of the political and a singular conception of climate change. The PCM17’s claim of resistance therefore constrained dissent and was ultimately counterproductive to a vibrant politics of climate change. Rather than understanding climate change as singular, I argue that reconsidering climate change as multiple – that is, as an unstable, contested representation of multiple political ecologies – provides the political space necessary to accommodate dissent in debate about climate change without abdicating the responsibility to acknowledge its existence as a political problem. An agonistic framework of climate change politics severs the tie between the political and consensus, allowing a radical democratic politics of climate change to adopt a robust logic of resistance in climate change activism. Articular la resistencia: agonismo, democracia radical y activismo contra el cambio climático

scholarly journals Water, Livelihoods, and Migration in SIDS: Climate Change and Future Prospects for Carriacou, West Indies

Resources ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 174
Author(s):  
Adrian Cashman ◽  
David Yawson
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Small Population ◽  
Local Economy ◽  
Small Island ◽  
Land Area ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Climate Change And Variability ◽  
Local Environments ◽  
And Migration ◽  
High Degree

Caribbean Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are among the most vulnerable to climate change, which will have a disproportionate impact on local environments and economies. Whilst there is a growing literature on how Caribbean SIDS can adapt to become more resilient, an issue that has received little attention is with regard to migration as an unplanned response. It is recognised that events such as hurricanes and flooding can lead to internal relocation in the short term, but societal responses to droughts through migration have not generally been investigated. This paper seeks to address this by considering the case of the island of Carriacou, part of the state of Grenada. Carriacou, with its small population, limited land area, and local economy historically based on agriculture, has had a high degree of migration. This is in part a response to limited economic opportunities. Environmental stress, manifest through limited water availability, inappropriate land management, and social conditions, is likely to be exacerbated by climate change and variability. Resultant increases in the frequency and intensity of droughts, in the absence of proactive interventions, are likely to result in non-linear migration, both to Grenada itself and beyond.

scholarly journals Water, Livelihoods and Migration in SIDS: Climate Change and Future Prospects for Carriacou, West Indies

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian Cashman ◽  
David Yawson
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Small Population ◽  
Local Economy ◽  
Future Prospects ◽  
Land Area ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Climate Change And Variability ◽  
Local Environments ◽  
And Migration ◽  
High Degree

Caribbean SIDS are among the most vulnerable to climate change which will have a disproportionate impact on local environments and economies. Whilst there is a growing literature on how Caribbean SIDS can adapt to become more resilient a question that has received little attention is with regard to migration as an unplanned response. It is recognised that events such as hurricanes and flooding can lead to internal relocation in the short term but societal responses to droughts through migration have not generally been investigated. This paper seeks to address this by considering the case of the island of Carriacou, part of the state of Grenada. Carriacou with its small population, limited land area and local economy, historically based on agriculture has had a high degree of migration. This is in part a response to limited economic opportunities. Environmental stress manifest through limited water availability, inappropriate land management and social conditions is likely to be exacerbated by climate change and variability. Resultant increases in the frequency and intensity of droughts, in the absence of proactive interventions, are likely to result in non-linear migration, both to Grenada itself and beyond.

METHODS OF RENOVATION OF LOW-RISE RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENTS IN CONNECTION WITH LANDSCAPE RECULTIVATION (ON THE EXAMPLE OF ROSTOV REGION)

2019 ◽  
pp. 43-58
Author(s):  
Oksana Sadkovskaya
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Urban Planning ◽  
Water Balance ◽  
Urban Environment ◽  
Water Saving ◽  
Agricultural Landscapes ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Urban Landscapes ◽  
Rostov Region ◽  
Planning Methods

One of major factors of deterioration in a microclimate of urban development in the conditions of the Rostov region, is degradation of landscapes owing to violation of water balance of the territory. In article the main reasons for violation of water balance which included natural features of the region, a consequence of anthropogenic influence, climatic changes, etc. are considered. Examples from the world practice of urban planning, which show the relevance and effectiveness of compensation for the effects of anthropogenic im-pacts and climate change using planning methods, are given. The experience of the United States, the Nether-lands, Canada and other countries that use water-saving technologies in planning is considered. The rela-tionship of urban planning and the formation of sustainable urban landscapes is shown. The integration of water-saving technologies into the urban environment can be a means of optimizing landscapes and a means of creating unique urban spaces. Reclamation of the urban landscape of low-rise buildings is a necessary step in creating a modern and comfortable urban environment in the conditions of the Rostov region. Meth-ods are proposed to compensate for negative changes in urban landscapes that can be applied at the stage of urban planning. As well as the proposed methods can be applied in the reconstruction of urban low-rise buildings. The considered methods concern not only urban landscapes, but also agricultural landscapes that surround small and medium-sized cities of the Rostov region. In article the author's concept of the organiza-tion of the low housing estate on a basis Urban- facies is submitted. Planning methods of regulation of water balance of the territory on the basis of models the ecological protective of landscapes are offered: an ecolog-ical core, an ecological corridor and an ecological barrier and also analogs from town-planning practice are considered. The reclamation of urban landscapes based on urban planning methods for regulating the water balance of the territory will allow creating unique urban spaces that are resistant to local climatic conditions and the possible consequences of climate change.

Female Representation in Colombia

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mónica Pachón ◽  
Santiago E. Lacouture
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Political Context ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Female Representation ◽  
Political Arena ◽  
Substantive Representation ◽  
Representation Of Women ◽  
Electoral Democracy ◽  
Almost All

Mónica Pachón and Santiago E. Lacouture examine the case of Colombia and show that women’s representation has been low and remains low in most arenas of representation and across national and subnational levels of government. The authors identify institutions and the highly personalized Colombian political context as the primary reasons for this. Despite the fact that Colombia was an electoral democracy through almost all of the twentieth century, it was one of the last countries in the region to grant women political rights. Still, even given women’s small numbers, they do bring women’s issues to the political arena. Pachón and Lacoutre show that women are more likely to sponsor bills on women-focused topics, which may ultimately lead to greater substantive representation of women in Colombia.

Does socioeconomic status moderate the political divide on climate change? The roles of education, income, and individualism

2020 ◽  
Vol 60 ◽  
pp. 102024 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew T. Ballew ◽  
Adam R. Pearson ◽  
Matthew H. Goldberg ◽  
Seth A. Rosenthal ◽  
Anthony Leiserowitz
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Divide

scholarly journals A meta-analysis of the literature on climate change and migration

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-52
Author(s):  
Michel Beine ◽  
Lionel Jeusette
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climatic Factors ◽  
Human Mobility ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Displacement Effect ◽  
Methodological Choices ◽  
Econometric Methods ◽  
And Migration

Abstract Recent surveys of the literature on climate change and migration emphasize the important diversity of outcomes and approaches of the empirical studies. In this paper, we conduct a meta-analysis in order to investigate the role of the methodological choices of these empirical studies in finding some particular results concerning the role of climatic factors as drivers of human mobility. We code 51 papers representative of the literature in terms of methodological approaches. This results in the coding of more than 85 variables capturing the methodology of the main dimensions of the analysis at the regression level. These dimensions include authors' reputation, type of mobility, measures of mobility, type of data, context of the study, econometric methods, and last but not least measures of the climatic factors. We look at the influence of these characteristics on the probability of finding any effect of climate change, a displacement effect, an increase in immobility, and evidence in favor of a direct vs. an indirect effect. Our results highlight the role of some important methodological choices, such as the frequency of the data on mobility, the level of development, the measures of human mobility and of the climatic factors as well as the econometric methodology.

How Should We Talk About Climate Change and Migration?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Morrissey
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Human Migration ◽  
Policy Response ◽  
Limited Capacity ◽  
Flexible Approach ◽  
Single Term ◽  
And Migration

Abstract This paper is a response Ferris (2020), specifically to the call for coalescence around a single term by which to talk about people migrating in response to climate change. While sympathetic to the imperative behind Ferris’ (2020) call, my overall argument is to reject this proposal. Instead I argue for less of focus on what we call people migrating in response to climate change, and more of a focus on how we talk about them. To justify this, I argue that a single term is inherently reductive and likely to play upon anti-immigrant sentiment due to the need to portray ‘migration as a problem’. At best this will result in a policy focus with limited capacity to address the challenge of migration in a context of climate change. At worst it will drive a policy response that is overtly counter-productive. As an alternative, I propose embracing a multitude of discourses, informed by principals that I argue will drive a humane climate agenda, and allow for a flexible approach that can account for the variety of concerns at the nexus of climate change and human migration.

scholarly journals Rethinking Climate, Climate Change, and Their Relationship with Water

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 849
Author(s):  
Demetris Koutsoyiannis
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climatic Variability ◽  
Main Element ◽  
The Political ◽  
Real World Data ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
External Agent ◽  
Historical Investigation ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Water Issues

We revisit the notion of climate, along with its historical evolution, tracing the origin of the modern concerns about climate. The notion (and the scientific term) of climate was established during the Greek antiquity in a geographical context and it acquired its statistical content (average weather) in modern times after meteorological measurements had become common. Yet the modern definitions of climate are seriously affected by the wrong perception of the previous two centuries that climate should regularly be constant, unless an external agent acts upon it. Therefore, we attempt to give a more rigorous definition of climate, consistent with the modern body of stochastics. We illustrate the definition by real-world data, which also exemplify the large climatic variability. Given this variability, the term “climate change” turns out to be scientifically unjustified. Specifically, it is a pleonasm as climate, like weather, has been ever-changing. Indeed, a historical investigation reveals that the aim in using that term is not scientific but political. Within the political aims, water issues have been greatly promoted by projecting future catastrophes while reversing true roles and causality directions. For this reason, we provide arguments that water is the main element that drives climate, and not the opposite.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document