Green industrial policy is on the rise worldwide. The United States, the European Union, and China are each using economic planning to steer their national economies toward decarbonization. In the West, this marks a remarkable departure from past decades of hands-off, market-driven policies. The conference brought together leading political theorists, social scientists, and policy experts concerned with the organizational and economic challenges that these moves toward planning pose for the democratic governance of the economy. Discussions identified possibilities for democratization that move away from market-based solutions. What might the democratization of green investment look like? Will decarbonization-driven structural dislocation be managed technocratically and top-down, or will it be possible for the democratic community to be engaged with the management of its own recomposition? What, ultimately, does it mean to “democratically” manage conflicting pressures for environmental sustainability, economic efficiency, and decent and plentiful forms of employment in the 21st century?

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PARTICIPANTS
Aaron Benanav (Syracuse University)
Melanie Brusseler (Common Wealth)
Chiara Cordelli (University of Chicago)
Cédric Durand (University of Geneva)
Gary Herrigel (University of Chicago)
Amy Kapczynski (Yale Law School)
Michael A. McCarthy (Marquette University)
Saule Omarova (Cornell Law School)
Charlotte Robertson (Harvard Business School)

This event was sponsored by the Economic Planning and Democratic Politics research project.