Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil

In the 2013 nonfiction book, Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil, British political theorist Timothy Mitchell upends the traditional view on the relationship between carbon-based energy (primarily coal and oil) and democracy. Mitchell takes issue with previous accounts because they typically gloss over how workers, oil companies, imperial powers, the public, and carbon-energy producing countries create political relations out of the flows of and demand for energy. As a political scientist and historian, Mitchell reexamines decades of historical, economic, and scientific data to provide detailed accounts of how coal and oil workers played a key role in democratic struggles by exploiting the vulnerabilities of the socio-technical systems of coal and oil production and distribution, and how oil companies and government officials worked, often together, to undermine democracy and maintain instability in the Middle East.

This guide uses the 2013 Verso paperback edition for citations.

Please note: The author uses British English in the book. This guide uses American English, except with direct quotes from the book which maintain British English spelling and grammar.

Summary

In the Introduction, Mitchell denounces both traditional ideas of the “oil curse” and the inverse relationship between democracy and oil.