Paper short abstract:

There is an urgent need to frame and embed biological concerns within the very idea of democracy itself. In this paper, I provide an original conceptualisation of how the idea of ‘biodemocracy’ can be conceived and why we need it.

Paper long abstract:

In an era of global ecological disasters, there is an overarching responsibility of reframing democracy as a

system for people and the planet. How, when, and why do democracies succeed or fail at ecological issues?

There is an urgent need to frame ‘bio’ concerns in democracies in ways that can be addressed meaningfully

notwithstanding the political urgencies of electoral mandates and party-political divides. This requires an

embedding of biological concerns within the very idea of democracy itself. In this paper, I provide an original

conceptualisation of how the idea of ‘biodemocracy’ can be conceived and why we need it. I argue that

‘biodemocracy’ is situated at the intersection of politics, ecology, environment, and democracy, although in a

way that is related to, but theoretically distinct from, similar existing terms like green democracy, sustainable

development, etcetera. Putting forward an understanding of biodemocracy allows us to explicitly recognise in

analytical terms the interdependence of all life forms so that we think of a spectrum that ranges from political

ecology at one end to ecological politics at the other, and many complex challenges can gain coherence through

how they are situated along this spectrum.