From scarcity to sufficiency: lessons from British World War II textile rationing for degrowth policies

British textile rationing during World War II demonstrates that rapid and equitable material contraction is institutionally possible. Calculation in kind through rationing enforced strict resource-consumption ceilings; non-tradable quotas and price controls protected fair access to garments; the Utility Clothing Scheme, combined with rationing, guaranteed quality and slowed household turnover of garments; sufficiency-oriented communication countered garment-demand stimulation; and repair cultures, mutual-aid networks, and home production enhanced material autonomy in garment production and consumption. Ultimately, this article demonstrates that sustainability demands respecting biophysical limits, justice requires the fair distribution of these limits, and autonomy entails democratic control over both the setting of limits and the reorganization of production within those limits. At the same time, the rationing system displayed structural tensions that constrain its long-term viability and relevance for degrowth. Its technocratic, expertocratic governance undermined political autonomy; its lack of democratic decision-making constrained justice; wartime capital-intensive consolidation of clothing production marginalized small artisanal firms and weakened technical autonomy; its lack of economic and cultural transformation made it unsustainable in the long run and vulnerable to postwar growth pressures, political contestation, and cultural expectations of rising consumption. Rather than evidence of degrowth’s feasibility, this article reveals the structural, cultural, and democratic challenges any ecological democratic rationing system must address today and highlights what would be required to shift from past rationing experiences to ecological and democratic rationing: durable cultural norms of sufficiency, economic transformation of modes of production and consumption, strong public institutions, and mechanisms for collective decision-making over resource use.