Democracy, disagreement, disruption: agonism and the environmental state

ABSTRACT

Contemporary liberal democratic states seem to be headed towards inevitable environmental crisis. These states are locked into unsustainable practices and appear to lack the political institutions that could help them change path. Although there is broad social awareness of the problem of climate change, for example, this has not translated into robust environmental policymaking. Should democracy be regarded as a constitutive part of the ‘glass ceiling’ to socio-ecological transition? Here, I defend democracy, sketching a model of ‘ecological agonism’ in which democratic disagreement over environmental issues is understood to be crucial in provoking the emergence of alternatives, disrupting unsustainable conventions, and engaging citizens in a lively politics. Democratic disagreements should not be transcended or rationalised but regarded as a political (re)source. State institutions are key in ensuring the legitimate, provocative, and respectful expression of agonistic conflict over environmental concerns.

KEYWORDS:

• Environmental state
• sustainability
• technocracy
• democracy
• deliberation
• agonism

Acknowledgments

I am very grateful for the support and constructive comments on this paper offered by Marit Hammond and Daniel Hausknost and the other participants of the workshop 2017 ECPR joint sessions in Nottingham.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.