On non-reformist reforms and partial political settlements in degrowth strategy

One of the most urgent and challenging open questions for degrowth scholarship and practice concerns how to pursue a degrowth social-ecological transformation within the existing structures in the real world. However, the marked emphasis on democratic planning for non-reformist reforms in a degrowth strategy (i) underestimates the lack of favourable conditions for democratic planning (i.e., political support, the willingness and ability of the state to act, and a condition of broad accord in society), (ii) reflects a problematic lack of preparedness for strategic compromise, and (iii) conflates non-reformist reforms with consensus-based deliberative democracy and policy and planning. This paper explores ‘partial political settlements’ as a perspective on transformative non-reformist reforms in unfavourable conditions to address these shortcomings. The paper illustrates the approach through the examples of the Representation of the People Act (United Kingdom), and the National Policy for Agroecology and Organic Production (Brazil). The partial settlements perspective aligns with an emancipatory interpretation of non-reformist reforms, complements prefiguration and counterhegemonic mobilisation and offers an alternative pathway to deliberative democratic planning for non-reformist reforms for social-ecological transformation. • The paper addresses degrowth transformation from within existing real-world structures. • ‘Partial political settlements’ perspective may support non-reformist reforms in unfavourable conditions. • The perspective aligns with an emancipatory perspective on non-reformist reforms. • The perspective is an alternative to deliberative democratic planning for non-reformist reforms.