The Limits of Populism in the Face of Planetary Boundaries: A Response to Mouffe

This paper critically examines Chantal Mouffe's argument for a Green DemocraticRevolution as a way to address the political challenges posed by democratic decline in the age of ecological crises.Although Mouffe's articulations of agonistic pluralism, populist strategy, and the construction of collective adversaries and allies offer valuable insights, our response identifies significant limitations to her argument.More specifically, we problematise her focus on discursive contestation in relation to planetary boundaries, and the dangers of the personalisation, moralisation, and oversimplification of systemic causes and structural forces.Overall, our critique suggests that addressing ecological and democratic challenges requires, first and foremost, a clear understanding of the materialities of climate change and capitalism, rather than a populist strategy that targets bad actors while leaving deeper systemic causes intact.While adversarial contestation is a crucial component of ecological and democratic transformation, this should not come at the expense of careful structural analyses.