Dictatorship or democracy, what regime for a successful ecological transition?

• Faced with the ecological emergency and at a time when democracy is going through a crisis of legitimacy, the idea arises that an authoritarian regime would be more qualified to carry out the ecological transition in the allotted time
• The think-tank La Fabrique Ecologique deconstructs this temptation of the green dictatorship, relying in particular on China, a counterexample on the matter
• The Ecological Factory recalls, on the contrary, that "ecology" and "democracy" are mutually reinforcing. To move faster in the transition, the think-tank recommends redefining political projects and making room for new forms of participation.

“Green dictatorship” or “enlightened technocracy”… Are authoritarian regimes more qualified than democracies to carry out the ecological transition in the allotted time? The idea is not new. "It was developed by several thinkers of political ecology, some already forty years ago *," recalls Eric Vidalenc, economist at Ademe (Environment and Energy Management Agency).

But the temptation of the authoritarian regime returns with force, while accumulating scientific reports repeating the urgency to act. "At a time also when democracies, as they materialize today, are going through a major legitimacy crisis," added Lucile Schmid, a senior official and vice-president of the think-tank La Fabrique Écologique.

Beijing and its hunt for single-use plastics

But what suggests that authoritarian regimes are better able to respond to environmental challenges? This is the first question raised by the Ecological Factory in a note published Wednesday evening and written by a working group chaired for a year by Eric Vidalenc.

Often the answer fails: China and the ambitious plans it launches, in recent years, in renewable energies, the fight against air pollution, the preservation of biodiversity ... On January 20, it opened also, with a crash, his hunt for single-use plastic. Hitherto discreet on this subject, Beijing has presented a five-year plan which aims to reduce plastic use in the country by 30% in five years. It plans, from the end of 2020, to ban plastic bags in all major cities and that of single-use plastic cutlery in catering from the end of the year. Very populated regions, such as the cities of Beijing and Shanghai or the province of Jiangsu will also ban the use of non-biodegradable packaging from the end of 2022.

This Chinese plan necessarily refers to the anti-waste law just passed in France and which aims to get us out of "a society of all disposable". On Twitter, Internet users did not fail to make the parallel, to ask the government to advance the final release date of single-use plastic packaging deemed to be scheduled for 2040 **.

Green populism must be when China decides to end plastic packaging in 2025 when @brunepoirson tells us that it is impossible in France before 2040 ...

@brunepoirson we stay on 2040? China puts the package to limit plastic https://t.co/yifg4IGKDW

China, "the counterexample"

However, for Jean-Paul Maréchal, lecturer in economic science at the University of Paris Sud, author of La Chine face le mur de l'environnement (ed. CNRS), China is precisely the counterexample of this idea that 'a dictatorship would be more effective in carrying out the ecological transition. "Beijing is acting after years of denial and, despite everything, greenhouse gas emissions have increased in recent years," he begins.

Above all, the economist invites to look at the motivations of the Chinese authorities to take up the subject. “The country goes from far away. Air pollution causes 1.6 million deaths each year, 20% of the water is unfit for consumption, the soil is in poor condition…. Even a dictatorship, to exist, must rely on social relay groups. In particular, the emerging middle class, who are asking to live in a healthier environment. Eric Vidalenc recalled the role of the numerous civic demonstrations in taking into account by Beijing, the scourge of "airpocalypses", "a mechanism which is precisely more a matter of democracy".

Finally, there are the announcements from Beijing… and their practical applications. At the presentation of the plan to fight against single-use plastics, the ecologist Ma Jun, head of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE), funded by private donations, thus stressed that "its implementation remained to be demonstrated ”.

Jean-François Huchet, professor of economics and president of Inalco (National Institute of Oriental Languages ​​and Civilizations), author of The Environmental Crisis in China (ed. Science Po Press) deconstructs a vision of China as a single block monolithic obeying the finger and the eye in Beijing. "There are also very powerful lobbies in China who do not always find their interests in government policies, and the relations between the central power and the governments of the different provinces are also extremely complex," he explains. he. Hence these frequent discrepancies between the decisions taken by Beijing and their implementation on the ground. "

"Need for justice and participation"

For Lucile Schmid, the temptation of the green dictatorship is then "the easy solution to a complex and urgent problem that is ecology," she slips. But on the one hand, there is no guarantee that such regimes are committed continuously and over the long term in favor of ecological transition. On the other hand, authoritarianism restricts the capacity for initiative, to think, to create. "

"However, we need it to complete the ecological transition," continues Eric Vidalenc. Believing that we already have all the technical solutions on hand to carry it out is an illusion. And as these solutions are insufficient today, we must also look at our lifestyles. Again, this reflection requires democracy. The economist refers to a study by Ademe which asked a panel of French people on what conditions they would accept major changes in their lifestyles. "Two concepts emerged in the responses," he said. Justice [let these changes be fair] and participation [let them be involved upstream in the reflection]. "

"Rethinking the political project"

Unsurprisingly, to "govern the ecological transition", the note then calls for strengthening democracy. The Ecological Factory has three tracks. First, to define a new political project that is better able to respond to environmental challenges. "Ecology has never been at the heart of our institutions, we are always looking for the right way to combine the two," notes Lucile Schmid. There is a gap between the ecology of expertise, carried by public policies, and the ecology of citizen initiatives. They are not worn by the same people, do not have the same vocabulary, the same agenda ... and therefore communicate poorly. "

The second track is to bring justice to decision-making. The Ecological Factory then takes the example of the carbon tax, the rejection of which will be the starting point for the Yellow Vests movement, but also points to the need to reorganize governance within companies with the presence of public interest intermediaries who would realign economic interests with government objectives.

The citizens' convention to watch closely

Finally, the note raises the question of new forms of participation in public debate and the need to strengthen science-society mediation to better inform citizens on environmental issues. On this aspect, the creation in France, in November 2018, of a high council for the climate - composed of thirteen climate experts, and responsible for bringing an independent view of France's climate policies, is a step in the right direction. , welcomes the Ecological Factory.

Like the citizens' climate convention, an assembly of 150 citizens drawn by lot and who has been working since October 4 on solutions to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030. The convention begins , this Friday, his fifth weekend of work in Paris. Its conclusions are expected in April. "We follow the experience closely," says Eric Vidalenc.

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* Eric Vidalenc cites in particular the climatologist James Lovelock [at the origin of the Gaia hypothesis], who considered it necessary to suspend democracy for a certain time, or the German philosopher Hans Jonas who put forward the hypothesis of a "benevolent tyranny" , well informed and animated by the right understanding of things "if men do not manage to impose on themselves the moderation necessary for their survival.

** At the ministry of ecological transition, we defend ourselves by recalling that the objective is to provide for progressive reductions in single-use plastics until they are completely eliminated in 2040, "the point of arrival". In addition, we are talking here about single-use plastic packaging and not single-use plastic objects (straw, cutlery, etc.) which China mainly talks about in its plan and which are, in part, already prohibited in France and in Europe.

Fabrice Pouliquen