Australian climate action groups in the deliberative system

Abstract

A systemic approach to deliberative democracy de-emphasises the role of discrete deliberative experiments involving minipublics. Instead, this systemic perspective focuses attention on the quality of deliberation achieved throughout distributed governance systems. It opens up the possibility that institutions that do not appear deliberative in isolation may have a positive impact on deliberation at a system scale. This systemic perspective is drawn on here to assess the role of climate action groups (CAGs) within Australia’s deliberative system on climate-change response. These self-organised, voluntary groups, made up of like-minded people with a shared concern about climate change, do not meet traditional criteria for advancing deliberation. Unrepresentative and lacking discursive diversity, they nevertheless advanced the quality of public deliberation by bringing new voices and preferences into public deliberation, holding decision makers accountable and acting as trusted information sources for at least some citizens. From a deliberative-systems perspective, self-organised, unrepresentative, but persistent groups such as CAGs may offer more fruitful sites for increasing public deliberation on climate change than temporary minipublics.

Keywords:

• deliberative democracy
• deliberative system
• climate action groups
• climate governance

ORCID

Chris Riedy http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3668-737X

Notes

1. CAG members have been provided with pseudonyms. Each participating CAG is identified by state (New South Wales – NSW or Victoria – VIC) and a number.