Democratic Participation and Climate Politics: Notes on the Convention Citoyenne pour le Climat in France

Political science and the public know what has gone wrong with liberal democracy and continues to go wrong, but what can be done to counter this trend? What can slow down the de-democratisation, what can reverse the development that has been observed ever more urgently since shortly after the turn of the millennium? As one instrument the chapter discusses citizens’ councils, which have been field-tested in many places in recent years and whose strengths and shortcomings can now be evaluated. We will give an insight into the theoretical foundations of deliberative and participative democratic innovations focusing more closely on citizen assemblies with an exemplary evaluation of France’s climate assembly, the Convention Citoyenne pour le Climat (CCC), a rather elaborate one of citizen participation, associated with a wide public attention and accompanied by an intense scientific and intellectual debate in France. The CCC has been, in terms of political activation and discourse, successful, whereas in terms of its general policy impact and structural changes of French society and politics, it has not been a full success story. Instead of promoting a positive French exception to the conventional antagonism of etatism and street protest, this experiment perished in 2022/23.