Democracy in Retreat and the Climate Crisis

This volume sheds light on the complex global landscape of autocracy's ascent and its profound impact on climate change response. Split into three sections, the book discusses pathways leading to the global rise of autocracies. Employing a multidisciplinary approach, the first section presents the conceptual framework surrounding the surge of autocracy and the erosion of democracy. It investigates diverse facets such as dictatorship, authoritarianism, populist movements, and the nuances of 'restricted' and 'good' democracies.
In the second section, the focus shifts to the root causes and the worldwide propagation of autocracy and democracy backsliding. It analyzes the challenges these trends pose for a sustainable future, a topic rarely explored from a multidisciplinary perspective. The book engages with critical discussions on green authoritarianism, the erosion of social capital through political entrepreneurship, and the authoritarian politics of climate change.
The third section examines the impact of eroding democracy on the natural environment and the sustainability concerns during the climate change era as viewed through a humanities lens.
For scholars, students, policymakers, and activists in fields such as autocracy, democracy, political sociology, international relations, and sustainability, this book provides invaluable insights into our evolving world. It presents strategies to navigate climate change adaptation in a changing, less democratic world.

Barbara Wejnert is a Professor of Political Sociology, Sustainability, and Gender at the Department of Environment and Sustainability, as well as a faculty member at the Jaeckel Center for Law, Democracy and Governance at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York, USA. Her work focuses on democracy and the factors that impact its adoption, global diffusion, and democracy retreat, as well as the effects of democracy on countries' sustainable development and population well-being. In particular, she studies the impact of democratic politics on gender equity and gender-balanced policies as pathways to sustainable development across the US and internationally. She has further studied the multiple causes and differential outcomes of spreading democracy worldwide, as well as the effects of democracy’s growth and retreat on countries’ sustainable development efforts. Wejnert is the author or editor of several books and numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals, including the American Sociological Review, Annual Review of Sociology, and Perspectives on Politics, which discuss democratizing processes and their consequences for social policies and countries' development. Her book "Diffusion of Democracy", published by Cambridge University Press in 2014, received multiple nominations for scholarly awards. Wejnert is also the recipient of the prestigious Arlene Kaplan Daniels Paper Award for her work on the effects of democratization on unequal outcomes of democracy on the well-being of women compared to men.