Climate politics: The challenge of Autocratization and the climate emergency

Democracies are under pressure world-wide and we are currently witnessing a wave of autocratization. At the same time, across the globe countries are now reducing their national climate ambitions by diminishing climate protection or removing existing climate policies. How can we understand the dual challenge of a global backlash against democracy and pro-climate policies? What connects the democratic and the climate crises? Democratic backsliding and the climate emergency pose fundamental challenges to societies crossing the norther-southern divide. Yet, while social scientists have tended to focus on explaining the democracy challenges, the theorizing on the climate emergencies have been left to the natural scientists.

In this course we critically reflect on the interconnections between two large challenges facing the world: autocratization and the climate emergency. We investigate how rising temperatures are linked to the proliferation of armed conflicts, food shortages and economic recessions. We ask how autocratization directly or indirectly affect the dismantling of climate policies. We also investigate the links between climate denialism and populist movements and the role of global institutions in these global battles.

The course consists of the following components:

1. Student-led moderated seminar discussions
2. Guest lectures
3. Group work
4. Reflection notes

This elective course tackles these questions through deep reading and discussion of selected academic articles, videos and documents. In class, we approach the readings in a dialogue-oriented seminar structure, based on students' preparation of readings, one short research brief and with rotating responsibility for co-planning and moderating the seminar session. Willingness to prepare the session readings in-depth is essential for successful participation in this course.

A student who has completed the course should have the following learning outcomes defined in terms of knowledge, skills and general competence:

Knowledge

The student knows

• major debates on the combined global challenge of autocratization and the climate emergency
• key trends in changes in climate policies and regulations across the world
• key theoretical arguments from existing literature on autocratization and environmental / climate policy.

Skills

The student can

• evaluate, synthesize, and critically appraise existing social science research on the governance and politics autocratization and environmental / climate policy
• develop and apply their conceptual-analytical approach to understand processes of auocratization and climate policy reversals global challenge
• identify and analyse relevant empirical cases of auocratization and climate policy reversals global challenge
• illustrate theoretical arguments with empirically in selected cases.

General competence

The student can

• identify and present complex phenomena in the field of dual global challenges of governance in a nuanced and critical manner
• develop, present, discuss and defend own arguments about scholarly readings and empirical phenomena in dialogue with peers
• structure and moderate group discussions in an inclusive manner.