O horizonte de emergência ecológica e a crise das democracias liberais

Abstract

The present PhD Thesis has the aim to investigate whether and to what extent the ecological emergency conditions and amplifies the liberal democracies crisis. Even though there is some consensus that we are living in a period of democratic recession and serious environmental imbalance, it is not common for these crises to be directly related in the analyses carried out in the academic context and in public debate. From this perspective, the main scope of the study was to elucidate the elements that link them, beginning the journey by detailing the ecological crisis and its anthropogenic roots, with special emphasis on the circumstance that, despite the inseparability between the materiality of the world and our social conceptions, the environmental dimension has historically remained, in terms of theoretical elaboration and political practice, in the shadow of socioeconomic aspects. Regarding the multi-causal phenomenon of contemporary step back in terms of democratization, in addition to the diagnoses presented by representatives of different theoretical frameworks, the research demonstrates the relevance of the instrumentalization of climate change denial and the related demand for freedom in unrestricted forms as elements strongly linked to the advance of reactionary populism. The study also demonstrates that the climate emergency, by exacerbating inequality and socio-environmental exclusion, tends to discourage political participation and increase distrust in the capacity of institutions, which encourages the implementation of authoritarian projects. Finally, it highlights the association between neo-extractivist grammar, environmental degradation and democratic erosion, illustrated by the representative Brazilian case. Therefore, the investigation adds novelty to the diagnosis of liberal democracies crises and reinforces the central role of ecological issue in the dispute for political hegemony.