From crisis to catastrophe? The ecological pathologies of the liberal—democratic state form

Despite the frequency with which it is deployed, ‘crisis’ remains one of the most illusive, under‐developed and under‐theorized of concepts. In this article I return to the etymology of the term, suggesting that we conceive of crisis as a moment in which a decisive intervention is made and not merely as an accumulation of contradictions. This has important implications for our understanding of ‘global environmental crisis’ and the prospects for its resolution. I identify a mismatch between the level at which environmental contradictions arise and are sustained (that of the global political economy) and that at which environmental contradictions become articulated politically (that of the national state). This suggests the need to consider the mechanisms by which political responsibility for environmental degradation is displaced to the national level, and the nature of the responses made by governing institutions at this level. These, I argue, tend to be characterized by symptom amelioration as opposed to ‘crisis resolution’. In the second half of the article I consider the ecological pathologies of the liberal—democratic state form, examining the repertoire of responsibility‐displacement strategies deployed by contemporary states, and the state's logic of risk assessment. I suggest that the representational logic of the liberal‐democratic state form is the principle obstacle that stands in the way of globally decisive intervention in response to global environmental degradation.