Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil

Product Information

Making Gross National Product (now GDP) the sole measure of prosperity changed politics and redefined what could and could not be discussed in the public sphere. Mitchell claims this “economy,” backed not by finite resources but by conceivably infinite oil reserves, eroded democracy as oil firms and imperialist powers mechanized the idea of “the market” to their ends. He began his argument with the nineteenth century in Britain and the importance of coal to the rise of working-class demands for political rights before moving to an analysis of the development of the oil industry in the Middle East and the uncertain future the industry faces today. However, oil is an outstanding source of energy with it's abundance in the middle east alot of forces fight for it.

Carbon Democracy tells a more complex story, arguing that no nation escapes the political consequences of our collective dependence on oil.

When democratic power in oil producer countries became an issue, it was quenched with doctrines of protectorates, separate development, self-determination (often, meaning replacement of foreign dictatorship with local dictatorship) and eventually, maintenance of conflict and political instability.

Sometimes the language is highly abstract, particularly when discussing the almost perfectly abstract "science of economics". But what really struck me above all as the revelation of a truly stable feature of the West and capitalism is the carefully unburied notion that “development” has always meant, and will always mean, “separate development”, i. Reclassification of oil sources has followed the platueau of extraction since 2005, but most of the oldest and biggest oil fields, making up around half of conventional oil production, are all in decline, 5% or more, every year. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. Mitchell begins the book by contrasting the qualities of coal and oil and the infrastructure required to extract, transport, and use each carbon-based fuel.ACT Contact / FAQ About Events / Videos Merch / Subs Sign in/up Carbon Democracy : Political Power in the Age of Oil Mitchell, Timothy More by this author.

i) When industrialization in W-Europe dependend on coal, it also depended on mining and transport by teams of workers, so strikes and sabotage were effective means to win more rights. In 1900 half the world's oil production was in Baku, so the Brits acquired the rights to oil control and transit in Persia mostly to prevent a Russian pipeline to the Persian Gulf. In fact, many oil companies sought to prevent the development of oil in the Middle East out of fear of foreign competition. The conclusion and afterward has a great analysis on peak oil, and global warming, as well as technical aspects for extracting unconventional forms of oil. For instance, he argued that one could draw a map of the Middle East by oil revenue and based on whether this revenue was rising or declining would manifest in a map of the Arab Spring.Great Britain’s evolution in the area of representation is unique in the developed world—over a long period of three hundred years, they reformed their own government and relocated power from aristocracy to the common people without a civil war, without organized violence. so, oil companies ended up extremely well equipped to "define the nature of the crisis and promote a particular set of solutions. When studying British history, it is incredibly reductive to simply point to the Industrial Revolution as the pivotal turning point that led to the demand for political rights and mass politics in the nineteenth century.