Reconciling democracy and sustainability: three political challenges and the role of democratic innovations
Governing sustainability challenges such as climate change or biodiversity loss presents a profound democratic dilemma. Although democratic practices and procedures are widely regarded as essential for collectively addressing complex sustainability issues, liberal democracies have been criticized by...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Taylor & Francis Group
2025-05-01
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| Series: | Sustainability: Science, Practice, & Policy |
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| Online Access: | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/15487733.2025.2504239 |
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| author | Jens Marquardt Frederik Pfeiffer Mareike Blum Tim M. Daw Frank Akowuge Dugasseh Jobst Heitzig Erik Hysing Ingrid Helene Brandt Jensen Katariina Kulha Frederik Langkjær Daniel Lindvall Naghmeh Nasiritousi David Schlosberg Arho Toikka Lars Tønder |
| author_facet | Jens Marquardt Frederik Pfeiffer Mareike Blum Tim M. Daw Frank Akowuge Dugasseh Jobst Heitzig Erik Hysing Ingrid Helene Brandt Jensen Katariina Kulha Frederik Langkjær Daniel Lindvall Naghmeh Nasiritousi David Schlosberg Arho Toikka Lars Tønder |
| author_sort | Jens Marquardt |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Governing sustainability challenges such as climate change or biodiversity loss presents a profound democratic dilemma. Although democratic practices and procedures are widely regarded as essential for collectively addressing complex sustainability issues, liberal democracies have been criticized by some scholars for their inability to effectively tackle global environmental threats like climate change. We reconcile these positions by outlining how the emerging field of democratic innovations can help to address the critical challenges that democracies face when governing sustainability transformations. We focus on three issues liberal democracies are confronted with: reformist incrementalism, (de)politicization, and imaginary boundaries. We then exemplify how democratic innovations such as deliberative mini-publics, participatory budgeting, and material participation can help address these challenges. Our review suggests that democratic innovations hold the potential to address political concerns, find compromises between extreme positions, reconnect people’s everyday lives with the grand sustainability challenges they face, and allow for alternative visions of a desirable future society. However, we also address cautionary tales, discuss the limitations of democratic innovations, and outline avenues for future research, which we believe can help further elaborate and develop participatory approaches to critical sustainability challenges. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-c21f828b54a34701ae42984a8110faa2 |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 1548-7733 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-05-01 |
| publisher | Taylor & Francis Group |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Sustainability: Science, Practice, & Policy |
| spelling | doaj-art-c21f828b54a34701ae42984a8110faa22025-08-20T01:53:08ZengTaylor & Francis GroupSustainability: Science, Practice, & Policy1548-77332025-05-0121110.1080/15487733.2025.2504239Reconciling democracy and sustainability: three political challenges and the role of democratic innovationsJens Marquardt0Frederik Pfeiffer1Mareike Blum2Tim M. Daw3Frank Akowuge Dugasseh4Jobst Heitzig5Erik Hysing6Ingrid Helene Brandt Jensen7Katariina Kulha8Frederik Langkjær9Daniel Lindvall10Naghmeh Nasiritousi11David Schlosberg12Arho Toikka13Lars Tønder14Department of History and Social Sciences, Institute of Political Science, Technical University of Darmstadt, Darmstadt, GermanyDepartment of Political Science, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, SwedenGerman Advisory Council on Global Change, Berlin, GermanyStockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, Stockholm, SwedenDepartment of Environmental Science, Aarhus University, Aarhus, DenmarkPotsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Potsdam, GermanySchool of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences, Örebro University, Örebro, SwedenDepartment of Political Science, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, DenmarkDepartment of Philosophy, Contemporary History and Political Science, University of Turku, Turku, FinlandINVI, Institute for Wicked Problems, Copenhagen, DenmarkDepartment of Earth Sciences, Uppsala University, Uppsala, SwedenDepartment of Thematic Studies and Centre for Climate Science and Policy Research, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden, and Swedish Institute of International Affairs, Stockholm, SwedenSydney Environment Institute, University of Sydney, Sydney, AustraliaFaculty of Social Sciences and Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, FinlandDepartment of Political Science, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, DenmarkGoverning sustainability challenges such as climate change or biodiversity loss presents a profound democratic dilemma. Although democratic practices and procedures are widely regarded as essential for collectively addressing complex sustainability issues, liberal democracies have been criticized by some scholars for their inability to effectively tackle global environmental threats like climate change. We reconcile these positions by outlining how the emerging field of democratic innovations can help to address the critical challenges that democracies face when governing sustainability transformations. We focus on three issues liberal democracies are confronted with: reformist incrementalism, (de)politicization, and imaginary boundaries. We then exemplify how democratic innovations such as deliberative mini-publics, participatory budgeting, and material participation can help address these challenges. Our review suggests that democratic innovations hold the potential to address political concerns, find compromises between extreme positions, reconnect people’s everyday lives with the grand sustainability challenges they face, and allow for alternative visions of a desirable future society. However, we also address cautionary tales, discuss the limitations of democratic innovations, and outline avenues for future research, which we believe can help further elaborate and develop participatory approaches to critical sustainability challenges.https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/15487733.2025.2504239Climate changedemocracyparticipationtransformationpoliticizationimaginaries |
| spellingShingle | Jens Marquardt Frederik Pfeiffer Mareike Blum Tim M. Daw Frank Akowuge Dugasseh Jobst Heitzig Erik Hysing Ingrid Helene Brandt Jensen Katariina Kulha Frederik Langkjær Daniel Lindvall Naghmeh Nasiritousi David Schlosberg Arho Toikka Lars Tønder Reconciling democracy and sustainability: three political challenges and the role of democratic innovations Sustainability: Science, Practice, & Policy Climate change democracy participation transformation politicization imaginaries |
| title | Reconciling democracy and sustainability: three political challenges and the role of democratic innovations |
| title_full | Reconciling democracy and sustainability: three political challenges and the role of democratic innovations |
| title_fullStr | Reconciling democracy and sustainability: three political challenges and the role of democratic innovations |
| title_full_unstemmed | Reconciling democracy and sustainability: three political challenges and the role of democratic innovations |
| title_short | Reconciling democracy and sustainability: three political challenges and the role of democratic innovations |
| title_sort | reconciling democracy and sustainability three political challenges and the role of democratic innovations |
| topic | Climate change democracy participation transformation politicization imaginaries |
| url | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/15487733.2025.2504239 |
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