5 - Green State

Summary

The state figures centrally in Green debates about the prospects and possibilities of a transition towards a Green society. This is true across the spectrum of Green political thought from anarchist traditions that advocate stateless self-governing communities, to emphasis on decentralisation and subsidiarity, through to the multilevel or transnational eco or Green state. The state is viewed, variously, as too large, too small, too captured and compromised by incumbent actors, elites and classes, too exploitative, violent or hierarchical and bureaucratic, depending on which version of Green politics is drawn upon. For some, it represents too large and distant an institution to build an ecological society, especially one which, for Greens, would have to have grassroots' democracy at its heart. Yet for others, it is too small a unit to deal with ecological challenges. This chapter explores Green critiques of the undemcratic, capitalist-industrialist and coercive nature of the state before articulating different ideas about the form a Green state could take. Finally, it evaluates strategies for building a Green state through ecological democracy.