CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2018
| Author | Hamilton, Daragh John |
|---|---|
| Title | Perspectives of Civic Science and Deliberative Democracy in Action: An exploration of the Irish Citizens' Assembly's meetings on climate change |
| Summary | A legitimacy crisis is apparent across Western civilizations. Trust in politicians, experts and institutions has been declining for decades as citizens feel unable to control the decisions that affect their daily lives; consequently, echo-chambers, particularisation and polarisation prevail. The desire for change is palpable, yet democracy seems ill-equipped to cope with today’s challenges. Climate change is one such incidence. Although citizens seek an augmented role for science, scepticism and uncertainty combined with scientists’ distance from decisions inhibit their impact, while myopia, vested-interests and the costs of change preclude political action. Prominent scholars have propagated civic science and deliberative democracy as solutions to these crises. Thus, Ireland – which serves as a microcosm of these issues with low trust and environmental inaction – established the Irish Citizens’ Assembly (ICA) to deliberate upon climate matters. Hence, this thesis critically evaluates the legitimacy of the ICA in light of participants’ perspectives. Seventeen semi-structured interviews - with ICA members and other key actors - triangulated with secondary sources form the basis of this research. The findings illustrated the importance of transparency - particularly before and after the process - while recruitment anomalies and agenda-setting were evident. Self/group versus majority interest also emerged as a prevalent theme particularly relating to rural constituents’ concerns. Furthermore, the priority of outcomes and the consequent need to strengthen the link between input and output processes became apparent. Nevertheless, the conclusions suggest that the ICA resulted in not only better decisions, but also a ‘better’ - more engaged, informed and trusting – citizenry. |
| Supervisor | Watt, Alan; Antypas, Alexios |
| Department | Environment Sciences and Policy MSc |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2018/hamilton_daragh.pdf |
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