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Disagreement, Disruption and Divergence: A Radical Green Democratic Approach to Sustainability Transformation

Democracy
Environmental Policy
Green Politics
Political theory
Amanda Machin
University of Agder
Amanda Machin
University of Agder

Abstract

Contemporary capitalist societies seem to be headed towards inevitable environmental crisis. Despite the ‘ecological modernization’ of the ‘environmental state’ these societies are locked into unsustainable practices and appear to lack the political institutions that might help them change track. Democracy might be regarded as part of the problem, rather than part of the solution. Democratic mechanisms allow voices of ignorance to speak over scientific expertise and myopic self-interest to dominate over long-term strategy. It might seem, paradoxically, that we have to sacrifice our democratic way of life in order to save it. This paper asserts, on the contrary, that democracy is more important than ever. This workshop posits a ‘glass ceiling’ as an ‘invisible structural limit’ to the capacity of current ‘environmental states’ for socio-ecological transition. Such a description implies that the barrier is transparent and that the reformed society on its other side can be visualised. And yet surely the limits can be foreseen, it is what lies beyond that remains in the dark. Although predictions of the rise in atmospheric carbon levels are as imprecise as the forecasts of the ‘tipping points’ they may trigger, they clearly exist as ominous, if moveable, boundaries against which contemporary socio-economic practices run up against. The paths around these boundaries and the territories they traverse, however, are unmapped. Each policy decision has repercussions that cannot be known in advance. And this is precisely why democratic disagreement is so crucial. Democratic disagreement allows prevailing (un)sustainable institutions to be disrupted; alternative positions to be articulated; divergent prescriptions to be contested; policy to be continuously (re)constructed. Democratic disagreement keeps open the perpetual possibility for changing path. Using theories of political agonism, the paper argues for the on-going manoeuvering through scientific uncertainty and social complexity through the radical democratic negotiation of irreducible alternatives.