Political Representation, the Environment, and Edmund Burke

Abstract

Speakers: Serrin Rutledge-Prior, Australian National University Edmund Handby, Duke University Chair: Jonathan Seglow, Royal Holloway University A major puzzle in contemporary political theory is how to extend notions of justice to the environment. With environmental entities unable to communicate in ways that are traditionally recognised within the political sphere, their interests have largely been recognised instrumentally: only important as they contribute to human interests. With the existential threat of climate change posing a serious challenge to the viability, and even legitimacy, of liberal democratic governance, the call to address environmental representation has never been stronger. Part of the puzzle of meaningful representation of the environment is recent studies on the potential allure of authoritarian measures to address challenges such as climate change. Specifically, that stresses the need to prevent environmental emergencies that might necessitate the abandonment of liberal democratic values in favour of authoritarianism. We propose that the range of available responses to the climate crisis need not be framed in terms of a dichotomous choice between those that are ‘liberal democratic’ and those that are ‘authoritarian’. We might, for example, rely on paternalistic approaches to addressing climate emergencies that are situated within liberal democratic regimes. Such approaches represent a middle ground between liberal democracy and authoritarianism, in that we can capture what is tempting about authoritarian approaches, without legitimising authoritarian power more broadly. We suggest that returning to classic theorists from the history of political thought can provide a basis for a coherent way of representing the environment in contemporary political institutions. Specifically, we offer a new approach to the question of environmental political representation through a novel application of Edmund Burke’s conception of the representation of interests. Burke claimed that interests are ‘unattached’ to any actual class or group and that it is the duty of the representative to represent these unattached interests. While Burke originally framed his interests in economic terms, such as the Merchant Interest, or the Agricultural Interest, we suggest that environmental phenomena such as rainforests, deserts, or reef systems, can be framed in Burke’s terms. We examine how Burke’s definition of an interest can apply to these kinds of environmental phenomena. We suggest that a Burkean approach can avoid many of the issues central to debates concerning environmental representation in contemporary political theory. Specifically, a Burkean account avoids the challenge of communication between environmental and human entities and, by virtue of its lack of reliance on direct communication between the representative and the represented, it avoids the ‘squeaky wheel’ phenomenon. We also address a potential objection to the account (namely, that environmental entities cannot have interests), and explore its potential limitations in relation to representing non-bounded environmental entities such as the climate and encouraging authoritarian ‘creep’. Beyond providing an original application of Burke’s work, the paper offers an alternative to the ‘allure’ of authoritarian environmentalism.