Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil

Abstract

Oil is a curse, it is often said, that condemns countries producing it to an existence defined by war, corruption and enormous inequality. Carbon Democracy tells a more complex story, arguing that no nation escapes political consequences of our collective dependence on oil. It shapes body politic both in regions such as Middle East, which rely upon revenues from oil production, and in places that have greatest demand for energy. Timothy Mitchell begins with history of coal power to tell a radical new story about rise of democracy. Coal was a source of energy so open to disruption that oligarchies in West became vulnerable for first time to mass demands for democracy. In mid-twentieth century, however, development of cheap and abundant energy from oil, most notably from Middle East, offered a means to reduce this vulnerability to democratic pressures. The abundance of oil made it possible for first time in history to reorganize political life around management of something now called the economy and promise of its infinite growth. The politics of West became dependent on an undemocratic Middle East.In twenty-first century, oil-based forms of modern democratic politics have become unsustainable. Foreign intervention and military rule are faltering in Middle East, while governments everywhere appear incapable of addressing crises that threaten to end age of carbon democracy - disappearance of cheap energy and carbon-fuelled collapse of ecological order. In making production of energy central force shaping democratic age, Carbon Democracy rethinks history of energy, politics of nature, theory of democracy, and place of Middle East in our common world.