"Degrowth, the project of modernity, and liberal democracy"

by Strunz, Sebastian; Bartkowski, Bartosz (2018)

Abstract

Critiques of modernity often align with critiques of the existing institutions of liberal democracy. We argue that the degrowth movement can learn from the experience of past critiques of modernity by avoiding their major mistake – that is, (inadvertently) conflating a critique of modernity with a rejection of liberal democratic institutions. Hence, we suggest to frame degrowth as the promotion of new vocabularies within a deliberative account of democracy. Specifically, we proceed in three steps: first, we briefly review some essential critiques of modernity and their stance towards liberal democracy. Second, we illustrate how some of the argumentative patterns within the degrowth literature may inadvertently endanger core values of liberal democracy. Third, we introduce our perspective on a liberal degrowth that aims to fulfil the “unfinished project of modernity”.

Keywords

Heidegger, Degrowth, Liberal Democracies, Critique Of Modernity, Modernity

Themes

On Heidegger, Degrowth

Links to Reference

• https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652618317980
• http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.06.148
• https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652618317980?casa_token=XfFqFI43gBcAAAAA:hwrgvW6GQBOIHOJFCSKamV2tvLmUGDdIcuooa0bDkmNgDr6Qv5CXSzRolO4Be3TVBxhs9fKG

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