Reconciling democracy and sustainability: three political challenges and the role of democratic innovations
Governing sustainability challenges such as climate change or biodiversity loss presents aprofound democratic dilemma. although democratic practices and procedures are widelyregarded as essential for collectively addressing complex sustainability issues, liberaldemocracies have been criticized by some scholars for their inability to effectively tackleglobal environmental threats like climate change. We reconcile these positions by outlininghow the emerging field of democratic innovations can help to address the critical challengesthat democracies face when governing sustainability transformations. We focus on three issuesliberal democracies are confronted with: reformist incrementalism, (de)politicization, andimaginary boundaries. We then exemplify how democratic innovations such as deliberativemini-publics, participatory budgeting, and material participation can help address thesechallenges. Our review suggests that democratic innovations hold the potential to addresspolitical concerns, find compromises between extreme positions, reconnect people’s everydaylives with the grand sustainability challenges they face, and allow for alternative visions of adesirable future society. however, we also address cautionary tales, discuss the limitations ofdemocratic innovations, and outline avenues for future research, which we believe can helpfurther elaborate and develop participatory approaches to critical sustainability challenges.
Authors
- Jens Marquardt (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2632-2828)
- David Schlosberg (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3547-919X)
- Frederik Pfeiffer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5119-1199)
- Jobst Heitzig (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0442-8077)
- Naghmeh Nasiritousi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2727-491X)
- Erik Hysing (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5322-4305)
- Mareike Blum (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1321-1136)
- Arho Toikka (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1990-6008)
- Frank Akowuge Dugasseh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1206-5074)
- Daniel Lindvall (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8950-6854)
- Katariina Kulha (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2317-6482)
- Lars Tønder (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3755-7462)
- Tim M. Daw (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6635-9153)
- Frederik Langkjær
- Ingrid Helene Brandt Jensen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8076-9650)
Institutions
- Linköping University (SE)
- Uppsala University (SE)
- University of Copenhagen (DK)
- The University of Sydney (AU)
- University of Helsinki (FI)
- Stockholm Resilience Centre (SE)
- University of Turku (FI)
- Stockholm University (SE)
- Aarhus University (DK)
- Örebro University (SE)
- German Council on Foreign Relations (DE)
- Swedish Institute of International Affairs (SE)
- Technische Universität Darmstadt (DE)
- Institute of Political Science (PL)
- Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (DE)
- University of Gothenburg (SE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Sustainability Science Practice and Policy
- Published
- 2025-05-23
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1080/15487733.2025.2504239
- Citations
- 5
- Primary Topic
- Sustainability and Climate Change Governance
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 5.53
Funders
- Stiftelsen för Miljöstrategisk Forskning
- Svenska Forskningsrådet Formas
- Naturvårdsverket
- Technische Universität Darmstadt