by Kristóf Szombati
Here come our five recommendations on political economy themes from 2024 that address and grapple in novel and highly suggestive ways with the most urgent questions of our time: How to save democracy from the grip of oligarchy? How to accelerate the ecological transition without destroying sustainable ways of living, and how can we overcome neocolonial geopolitical relations?
Samuel E. Bagg, The Dispersion of Power: A Critical Realist Theory of Democracy. Oxford: University of Oxford, 2024.
The Dispersion of Power is a much-needed clarion call to rethink conventional wisdom about what democracy is, why it matters, and how to make it better. Drawing from history, social science, psychology, and critical theory, Samuel Bagg explains why elections do not and cannot realize the classic ideal of popular rule, and why prevailing strategies of democratic reform focusing on producing responsive representation and more opportunities for participation often only make things worse. Instead, Bagg, following in the footsteps of C. Wright Mills, argues that we should see democracy as a way of protecting public power from capture by powerful elites through policies of radical wealth redistribution, the strengthening of counter-veiling forms of power, and the breakup of monopolies and oligarchic power.
Brett Christophers, The Price is Wrong. London: Verso, 2024.
Today’s consensus is that the key to curbing climate change is to produce green electricity and electrify everything possible. But while prices of solar and wind power have tumbled, the golden era of renewables has yet to materialize. What if our understanding of capitalism and climate is back to front however? What if the problem is not that transitioning to renewables is too expensive, but that saving the planet is not sufficiently profitable? In this essential intervention Christophers argues that the problem is that investment is driven by profit, not price, and operating solar and wind farms remains a marginal business, dependent everywhere on the state’s financial support. The solution he proposes is to take energy out of the private sector’s hands and find collective ways to accelerate the green transition.
Maura Benegiamo, Land, Capital and Extractive Frontiers. Social Conflict and Ecological Crisis in the Senegal River Delta. Bristol: Bristol University Press, 2024.
This book examines ‘land grabbing’ through the lens of the fraught relationship between capital and nature amidst the current ecological crisis. Through ethnographic and archival research, Maura Benegiamo investigates an Italian company’s acquisition of some 20,000 hectares of land in Senegal’s River Delta for agrofuel production and delves into the struggles of the pastoral communities affected by the project. Through this landmark case, the book shows how European energy and global food security policies are reshaping rural spaces, particularly in the global south, and expanding agrarian extractivism in sub-Saharan Africa. By shedding light on how contemporary capital–nature relationships perpetuate socio-ecological crises and colonial models, the book highlights the enduring forms of opposition to these processes and the need to overcome neocolonial logics in geopolitical relations.
Amir Lebdioui, Survival of the Greenest. Economic Transformation in a Climate-conscious World. Oxford: University of Oxford, 2024.
Through careful analysis spanning from the uneven economic impact of climate change to the rise of green industrial strategy, this book provides invaluable insights into the challenges and opportunities of a green transition. By analyzing the uneven industrial geography of decarbonization, the inadequate state of climate financing and rise of ‘green protectionism’, it demonstrates that the low-carbon economy stands to increase economic disparities between nations, unless action is taken. Then, by examining green industrial policies and their varied success, it explains how governments can still join the green industrialization race.
Mariana Mazzucato and Lorenza Monaco, Rethinking Industrial Strategies and the State. A Global South Perspective, Social Research, Vol. 91, No. 3, Fall 2024, pp. 819-849.
After decades of opposition and neglect in the context of a dominating neoliberal approach to markets and institutions, industrial policy has experienced a renaissance. In the wake of the financial, climate, and health crises that shape our world today, setting a sound industrial strategy has emerged as an absolute policy priority. Yet contemporary industrial strategies remain bound by outdated frameworks and preconceptions. Those shaped by the Global North in particular fall short of addressing the unique challenges Global South countries face, including limited state capacity, dependence on volatile global markets, and colonial legacies. These factors necessitate a radical rethinking of industrial strategy. The article argues that to avoid reproducing the mainstream view of state intervention, industrial strategy should fundamentally rethink the role of the state—not as a market fixer, but as a capable and confident market shaper.
