The Climate Tribunate: Addressing the Climate Crisis through Democratic Innovation

Abstract

Speakers: Janosch Prinz - Maastricht University Manon Westphal - University of Münster Abstract: In this paper, we propose a new democratic institutional design to address the climate crisis. Concretely, we develop a Climate Tribunate, which would interlink institutions based on the logic of an updated tribunate informed by plebeian political thought with institutions based on the logic of deliberative mini-publics. This combination would have considerable potential to overcome the weaknesses of current climate assemblies and open new dynamics tailored to the goal of strengthening the voices of ordinary people in climate politics. Developing the Climate Tribunate leads us to formulate a model for “mixed multi-level democratic innovation”. This model provides the basis for tailoring institutional proposals to the shortcomings of existing democracies and the need for multi-level responses to some of the most pressing problems today. Since October 2024, Janosch Prinz and Manon Westphal co-lead the three-year research project “Contours of a Non-Oligarchic Democratic Future” with Enzo Rossi (University of Amsterdam), which is funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation.