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Paper short abstract

In this paper, I critique Eurocentric debates on democratic resilience in the backdrop of the Anthropocene. Developing democratic practices in everyday life is only possible through decolonisation, since liberal democracies' golden age was possible because of colonisation.

Paper long abstract

Contemporary debates in the global North, in the backdrop of the Anthropocene and polycrisis, and the crisis of the social contract are framed through the growing scepticism towards democracy and its crisis itself. Many scholars of democratic resilience focus on preserving or restoring liberal democracy by so-called "bouncing back" to a presumed golden age/pre-crisis state. However, such thinking overlooks that this golden age of liberal democracy was only possible through the production of crisis beyond the borders of the global North through colonialism, slavery, extractive political economies and epistemic violence. In many ways, it also led to the ecological crisis of the Anthropocene as well.

Hence, this paper asks, if democracy is to be preserved, what exactly is worth preserving? Current responses to the climate crisis rely on global North-centric and technocratic solutions, and this is also the case when it comes to other crises. Often, such solutions overstep and disregard democratic practices. To reimagine and make democratic practices a part of everyday life to solve and address the contemporary problems, I argue that decolonisation of democratic spaces is required. Such spaces are not merely deliberative forums; rather, they question colonial presumptions, promote participation from the margins, and enable dialogue and conversations. This approach contributes to what Benno Fladvad describes as the revitalisation of democratic interactions as a response to both climate change and the crisis of democracy. Hence, it goes beyond Eurocentricism on democratic resilience and rethinks democracy in the context of the Anthropocene through a call to decolonisation.