Steve Vanderheiden - Environmental Political Theory

1 Title page ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICAL THEORY Steve Vanderheiden polity

2 Copyright page

3 Glossary

4 1 Introduction and Approach Ideas and environmental politics Sustainability as emergent and disruptive ideal Sustainability as transformational ideal Notes

5 2 Environmental Change and the Sustainability Imperative Ecological limits and sustainability imperatives Ecological limits: origins and possible responses Ecological limits and their discontents International responses to ecological limits Ecological limits and US politics Business as usual The eco-fortress The just transition Notes

6 3 Freedom Concepts and conceptions Freedom as culprit in commons tragedies Hardin on the tragedy of the commons Freedom and incentive structures Neoliberal freedom and scarcity Classic liberalism and neoliberal freedom Locke’s property theory and provisos Nozick’s entitlement theory and the proviso Prometheanism and the proviso Neoliberal freedom and externalities Individuality, consumerism, and sovereignty Consumerism, consumption, and freedom Neoliberal freedom and harm Conclusions: sustainability and the ideal of freedom Notes

7 4 Democracy Democracy and the environment Democracy as incompatible with sustainability? Environment and democracy Reconciling democracy and sustainability Two kinds of democratic legitimacy Democracy and doughnuts Rights as democratic constraints on democracy Alternatives to democracy Technocracy as alternative to democracy Technocracy as compatible with democracy Reconciling technocracy with democracy Eco-authoritarianism as alternative to democracy Technocracy as antidote to democracy’s failings Reforming environmental democracy Greening democracy Democracy and global governance Conclusions: environmental change and the democratic ideal Notes

8 5 Progress Conceptions of progress within a contested social compass Progress in Western political thought Ancient and medieval conceptions of progress Growth-as-progress in early liberalism Scarcity and modern conceptions of progress Growth as core state imperative Progress reoriented Challenging the growth imperative Wilderness, ecology, and the land ethic Toxic chemicals and the war on nature Rethinking links between growth and progress Toward a post-growth conception of progress The HDI as progress index Sustainable development goals Green growth vs. post-growth conceptions Conclusions: redefining progress to account for ecological limits Notes

9 6 Equality Equality as ideal Factual and moral equality Equality between species Human exceptionalism Rights and equality Environmental rights Equality as equivalence: the issue of carbon offsets Carbon equivalence Offsets and equity in international carbon trading Equality and sufficiency: competing standards Alternatives to equality Sufficiency and sufficientarianism Inequality and the environment Conclusions: environmental imperatives and the equality ideal Notes

10 7 Agency and Responsibility Key concepts in agency and responsibility Agents and agency Moral and legal standing Ethical individualism and the environment Challenges to ethical individualism Collectivities, value and moral standing Individualism, collective responsibility and climate change Climate change, agency, and responsibility Threshold effects, harm and responsibility Fragmented agency and responsibility Uncertainty and responsibility Agents and levels of analysis: who should act? Non-state agents and responsibility for climate change Individual agents and remedies Holding persons responsible for climate change Transparency and responsibility-taking Collective responsibility Conclusions: agency and responsibility and the environmental crisis Notes

11 8 Community The ancient ideal of community Community in modern political thought On anthropocentrism Anthropocentrism and the environmental crisis From biotic to planetary community Human exceptionalism Cultivating planetary community National identity and environmental protection Nations and peoples as allies of environmental protection Nationality, territory, and environment Cosmopolitanism and the global community Ethical obligations and distant strangers Theorizing cosmopolitan and planetary membership Environmental citizenship and its associated virtues Global community and common heritage Conclusions: environment and the community ideal Notes

12 9 Sovereignty Sovereignty as principle and in practice Elements of sovereignty Sovereignty as foe? The debate over the Convention on Biological Diversity Strong sovereignty and isolationist anti-environmentalism Assessing Senate GOP sovereignty claims Dogmatic versus pragmatic sovereignty Trump and the sovereignty principle The Trump Doctrine Sovereignty and sustainability Greening sovereignty Progressive sovereignty Humanitarian intervention and the evolution of sovereignty Sovereignty and sustainability Reconstructing sovereignty Conclusions: sovereignty and the ecological crisis Notes

13 10 Justice Rawlsian distributive justice Other conceptions of justice Environmental justice as social movement objective Two environmental justice campaigns Environmental justice movements, discourses, applications Environment and intergenerational justice Challenges for intergenerational justice: identity and uncertainty Challenges for intergenerational justice: currency Natural resources and the scope and currency of distributive justice Combining scope and currency in resource access On natural resource and climate justice Mitigation and burden-sharing equity Adaptation and equity in remedies Conclusions: environment and the justice ideal Notes

14 11 Conclusions: The Just and Sustainable Society Notes

15 Index

16 End User License Agreement

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2 Contents

3 1 Introduction and Approach

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