Mao versus the People: A Review of Climate Leviathan by Joel Wainwright and Geoff Mann

Abstract

This review of Climate Leviathan by Joel Wainwright and Geoff Mann assesses the authors’ arguments and locates them within a context of the slow responses to climate challenges offered by Western liberal-democratic countries in contrast to the more radical recent efforts of the Chinese leadership. The essay considers for its powerful analytical lens Wainwright and Mann’s framework for understanding the two axes upon which future responses to climate change may occur—either capitalist or anticapitalist responses, organized either along planetary sovereignty or universal democratic lines. It offers for consideration some criticisms of the book’s lack of engagement with the potential specter of authoritarian state intervention in the name of a climate emergency—the so-called Climate Maoism.

Key Words:

• Climate Change
• Climate Politics
• Democracy
• Maoism
• Planetary Sovereignty

Notes

1 See “Distribution of Solar Photovoltaic Module Production Worldwide in 2018, by Country,” Statista, accessed 10 April 2019, https://www.statista.com/statistics/668749/regional-distribution-of-solar-pv-module-manufacturing.

2 See, for instance, the Lowy Institute’s survey of Australian attitudes toward climate change and the role to be played by governments (Oliver 2018, 13).