Global Environmental Governance and the Green State
Global Environmental Governance and the Green State
This chapter explains why starting with the concept of the green state is politically and intellectually important. It begins by noting that many theorists from different perspectives have been very critical of state-centrism or reliance on states to solve environmental problems. Ecologists, Marxists, Feminists, Critical Theorists and Neoliberals have all articulated powerful critiques of the state. In response, theorists of ecological modernisation have defended the role or potential of the state, and authors like Robyn Eckersley and John Dryzek have formulated the notion of the green state to describe states which protect or advance environmental or ecological issues. A crucial lacuna in their work is the developing world, however, particularly in Africa. This chapter explains why this occurs, and challenges this omission through examples of variants of green states in Egypt and South Africa. It calls for green state theories which challenge the neo-Weberian assumptions of ecological modernisation.
Keywords: State, Anti-statism, Governance, Neoliberalism, Ecological modernisation, Eckersley, Dryzek, Failed states, Egypt, South Africa
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