Colloquium: Prof. Hannah Werner

The perceived legitimacy of climate governance is crucial for the effective implementation of the far-reaching policies needed to mitigate global warming. Yet, achieving such legitimacy is challenging due to the complexity, intrusiveness, and global nature of climate action. In this talk, Hannah will explore what types of decision-making processes citizens perceive as legitimate for addressing climate change.

While existing research has emphasized strengthening the democratic quality of climate governance—for instance through transparency or citizen participation—this talk will take a different perspective. Hannah will focus on forms of decision-making that reduce democratic involvement but may still be seen as legitimate by the public, particularly in times of crisis. This idea echoes theoretical concerns that as climate threats intensify, citizens may begin to question the ability of democratic institutions to guarantee their fundamental needs, such as safety. In such situations, people may be more willing to accept, or even prefer, non-democratic approaches to decision-making.

Hannah will present findings from an experimental study conducted in the Netherlands and Italy, examining how citizens react to non-democratic decision-making in climate policy—whether led by the executive or experts—and how these attitudes shift when the urgency of the climate threat is made more salient.