TY - JOUR
T1 - The legitimation crisis of democracy: emancipatory politics, the environmental state and the glass ceiling to socio-ecological transformation
AU - Blühdorn, Ingolfur
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - The democratic legitimation imperative of the modern state has been conceptualised as the barrier that stops the environmental state from developing into a green or eco-state – and thus as the glass ceiling to a socio-ecological transformation of capitalist consumer democracies. Here, I suggest that this state-theoretical explanation of the glass ceiling needs to be supplemented by an analysis of why democratic norms and procedures, which had once been regarded as essential for any socio-ecological transformation, suddenly appear as one of its main obstacles. I conceptualise the new eco-political dysfunctionality of democracy as one dimension of a more encompassing legitimation crisis of democracy which, in turn, has triggered a profound transformation of democracy. Ultimately, exactly this transformation constitutes the glass ceiling to the socio-ecological restructuring of capitalist consumer societies. It changes democracy into a tool for the politics of unsustainability, in which the legitimation-dependent state is a key actor.
AB - The democratic legitimation imperative of the modern state has been conceptualised as the barrier that stops the environmental state from developing into a green or eco-state – and thus as the glass ceiling to a socio-ecological transformation of capitalist consumer democracies. Here, I suggest that this state-theoretical explanation of the glass ceiling needs to be supplemented by an analysis of why democratic norms and procedures, which had once been regarded as essential for any socio-ecological transformation, suddenly appear as one of its main obstacles. I conceptualise the new eco-political dysfunctionality of democracy as one dimension of a more encompassing legitimation crisis of democracy which, in turn, has triggered a profound transformation of democracy. Ultimately, exactly this transformation constitutes the glass ceiling to the socio-ecological restructuring of capitalist consumer societies. It changes democracy into a tool for the politics of unsustainability, in which the legitimation-dependent state is a key actor.
U2 - 10.1080/09644016.2019.1681867
DO - 10.1080/09644016.2019.1681867
M3 - Journal article
SN - 0964-4016
VL - 29
SP - 38
EP - 57
JO - Environmental Politics
JF - Environmental Politics
IS - 1
ER -