Climate Change and the Common Good: New Perspectives for a Fundamental Concept of Political Theory

The ideas of justice and the common good are core concepts of political theory and democracy. Over time, both concepts have remained important goals for political communities, but can be understood as “essentially contested concepts” (Gallie 1955). With the (re-)emergence of climate protests in 2018, the concept of justice in particular has gained new significance in social discourse. It is the prominent argument of the climate movement around Fridays for Future (FFF): While the group initially underlined its activism with “We are here, we are loud, because you are stealing our future” and thus “intergenerational justice”, it has increasingly extended its argumentative range towards other forms of justice such as for marginalized communities. The common good, on the other hand, is far less present in the current discourse, even though the turn of the millenium marked its “renaissance” (Offe 2002: 55). Additionally, the climate is generally seen as the greatest common good (Ostrom 2019; Olson 1998). Therefore, I assume that climate protection can be understood as promoting the common good. This leaves a blank space between the role of the common good and the lack of outspoken representation in discourse. I suggest that a normatively informed discourse analysis could highlight why current climate change discourses fail and how current discourses might be improved to strengthen public support for climate change policies. Therefore, this contribution critically examines the current climate change discourse in Germany. By grounding the analysis in normative democratic theory, it proposes a discursive shift towards the common good to tackle current communicative problems of climate change policies. In doing so, I contribute to advancing empirically informed political theory by re-examining the well-established approach of discourse theory, corresponding to the approach of ecolinguistics and ecological discourse analysis (Stibbe 2020; Alexander/Stibbe 2014; Cheng 2022). This observation provokes reflection on the significance of the common good in the current climate protection discourse and the link between the long-standing fundamental concept of democracy and the new challenge of climate protection. To this end, I first show that the concept of the common good is generally underspecified – which contributes to a communicative deficit in current climate discourses. Secondly, I offer a specification of the common good, outlining a theoretically grounded approach to the common good from an ecological perspective. My premises include that the contemporary common good must be procedural, posteriori and non-authoritarian while respecting the gravity of the climate crisis and upholding current deliberative norms of democracy. Thirdly, through qualitative discourse analysis, I measure this newly developed concept against empirical realities by analyzing discourse on climate change as well as German legislation and further corresponding initiatives. In doing so, I bridge the gap between the extensive conceptual work on the common good and the lack of actual empirical research on the employment of this motive in public discourse (Münkler and Fischer 2002; Neidhardt 2002; Mayntz 1992). Therefore, I show that the integration of normative concepts in current political discourse can add fundamental value to political discussions, advancing empirically informed political theory.