The state in the transformation to a sustainable postgrowth economy

Figures & data

Table 1. State roles in a capitalist growth economy.

Economic development: Monetary growth (exchange value orientation)	State spatiality/spatial target	Economic, social and environmental policies
Rule of law: Guarantees private property, principle of equivalence, legal security of economic subjects Welfare state: Legitimises social inequality and maintains a minimum of social inclusion Environmental state: Addresses problems of externalisation of environmental costs	Delicate structure subject to de- and re-scaling processes New multi-scalar structures of state organisation, political authority and regulation keep emerging National scale after World War II	Macro-economic management/intermediation of corporatist processes Social policies de- and re-commodifiy labour power Environmental policies facilitate the achievement of’green growth’

Table 2. State roles in (a transformation to) a post-growth economy.

Economic development: (Increasingly) seen as bio-physical process (use-value orientation)	Spatial target	Economic and eco-social policies: Needs and sustainable welfare orientation
State ensures that production and consumption do not exceed environmental limits Defines limits for economic and social inequality Steers governance of public, collective, communal and private property forms	Global and local levels Global: Identification of thresholds for matter and energy throughput These delineate the leeway within which national and local economies may evolve	Macro-economic management of mixed and steady-state economy ensures provision of sufficient need satisfiers Eco-social policies facilitate ecological and social transformation