Revolutionary green republicanism: anti-capitalist politics for the planetary crisis

It posits that not only is a preoccupation with ‘greening’ the liberal-capitalist state analytically unsound, but that building an emancipatory strategy around it amounts to a dangerous form of climate delay. Drawing from an immanent critique informed by critical political and political economy perspectives, it finds that, as the foundation of political legitimacy and the basis of its ‘ecocidal social contract’ with citizens, the liberal-capitalist state’s structural commitment to the indefinite pursuit of unjust and unsustainable capitalist economic growth will always ultimately undermine the radical transformations required to bring the economy within safe and fair planetary and social boundaries.

It therefore argues that what is required is a revolutionary politics of system change, rather than a reformist politics of system maintenance. Green republicanism is proposed as a post-liberal politics of sustainability, arguing for a ‘radical turn’ that develops the revolutionary potentialities of the ‘first principles’ of the (eco-social) common good, (structural) non-domination and a radically democratic conception of self-governance.

To expand on and apply these principles in a critical manner, it introduces the Black Panther Party as an example of revolutionary praxis, identifying practices of intersectional analysis, coalition building, prefigurative mutual aid and effective leadership as areas of particular interest in building an antagonistic anti-capitalist movement. Building on these strategic propositions the thesis outlines a ‘revolutionary republican contract’ as the basis of a revolutionary green republican theory of change.<br><br><i>Thesis is embargoed until 31 December 2026.</i>