Carbon Democracy
Political Power in the Age of Oil
By: Timothy Mitchell
Published: November 7, 2011
Format: Hardcover, 288 pages
ISBN-10: 1844677451
ISBN-13: 978-1844677450
Publisher: Verso
"Fossil fuels helped create both the possibility of modern democracy and its limits", writes Professor in theDepartment of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies at Columbia University. Timothy Mitchell, in his brilliant and landmark book Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil. The author describes how not only the production, distribution, and use of oil are as crucial to understanding democracy in developed countries, and the lack of democratic institutions in oil producing countries.
Timothy Mitchell recognizes the connection between oil production and democracy goes far beyond simply the flow of oil money. For the author, an understanding of how the very apparatus of oil production is vital to conceptualizing why democracy has failed to take hold in producing nations; and also why it endangers democracy in developed oil using countries as well. Timothy Mitchell examines the mistaken idea that democracy is instilled in very different countries, through the same ideals and processes. The author rejects this social engineering concept of democracy. For the author, the idea of democracy and the apparatus of oil production, distribution, and usage are linked very tightly together.
Timothy Mitchell (photo left) discovers the powerful insight that democracy is itself based on carbon. For the author, following the history of carbon production offers the reasons why democracy took hold in some countries, and failed entirely to become part of other states. Timothy Mitchell points out that thinking about only oil producing countries as oil states misses half the equation. Oil using nations are also oil states, as their economies are based on the transfer of energy from fossil fuels into every aspect of modern life. The author also provides evidence that not only are these oil based economies not sustainable, but also the democracy that arose along with the use of fossil fuels is in danger as well.
With the easy to extract oil in decline, and new discoveries not keeping pace with the drop off, the ability of oil to fuel the economy is ending. The next part of the fossil fuel problem involves the unsustainable filling of the environment and the atmosphere with carbon. The history of carbon based fuels in developed countries involved many interrelationships that gave rise to democratic institutions. The various methods of organizing the flow and concentration of oil either created opportunities for democratic institutions to flourish.
In other social and economic organizations of the oil apparatus, those institutions were limited or removed entirely. The control of energy domestically and abroad has also worked to limit or remove democratic movements. The economy and democracy, for Timothy Mitchell are interwoven with the production, movement, and end usage of fossil fuels. That inter-relationship is what the author calls carbon democracy; and the author considers that concept to be in decline.
For me, the power of the book is how Timothy Mitchell presents a powerful analysis of how the rise of democracy as we know it, paralleled the rise of the carbon economy based on fossil fuels. By the sheer focus on energy production, distribution, and use as the drivers of the economy, democracy either flourished, or was stifled before it took root with the population. That same emphasis on a democracy based on carbon also contains the innate danger of collapse along with the decline of fossil fuel based energy. The critical insight that democracy depends on the forces of a carbon based energy system is one that has not been given sufficient, if any consideration.
That fresh examination of the basis of modern democracy, as being one tied to carbon, is essential for a fundamental understanding of the future of democracy. With the end of cheap oil, and the degradation of the planet's environment, democracy may be as unsustainable as carbon based national and global oil economies. To understand democracy demands a recognition of the interplay between carbon and democracy. Timothy Mitchell provides that important analysis in this essential and must read book.
I highly recommend the insightful and thought provoking book Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil by Timothy Mitchell, to anyone seeking a deeper examination, as well as a fresh approach to understanding the very foundation of modern democracy. With that democracy being dependent upon carbon based energy, its very sustainability is called into question by the author. With this critical analysis in hand, perhaps democracy can transform itself to work with a different set of energy relationships, both nationally and globally.
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