Top-down democratisation or a catalyst for sustainable change? A Case Study of the Danish Citizens’ Assembly on Climate

Abstract: Across the world, there is a call to combat the climate crisis and tackle growing socio-economic inequalities. The Danish Citizens’ Assembly on Climate (CAC) is a case of attempted deliberative democracy seeking pathways to this outcome. This thesis asks how the CAC might catalyse a Danish sustainability transition. With democratic discourse theory and the concept of just sustainability, I conduct a critical discourse analysis to examine the CACs barriers and abilities to partake in democratic policy making, and how the sustainability narratives within the CAC affect this ability. The analysis shows that the CAC addresses environmental and socio-economic complexities but faces three barriers: 1) a techno-managerial framing of sustainability, 2) “expertisation” of deliberation, and 3) top-down democratization. By concluding that to catalyse a just sustainability transition, the CAC must overcome these barriers, I suggest a future examination of how the CAC can penetrate political decision-making and the broader public awareness.