Transcending Socio-Ecological Crisis by Means of the State or Revolution?

ABSTRACT

The exacerbated socio-ecological crisis, including the devastating COVID-19 pandemic during the last few years, has given rise to a variety of interpretations and strategies to face this crisis. Some researchers have suggested that the state is the single most effective agent capable of mobilizing the amount of resources and the policies required to overcome a crisis of such a broad scope and devastating impact. This paper analyzes the causes of the multifaceted and deepening socio-ecological crisis to show that the root cause behind this crisis is the capitalist mode of production itself. Subsequently, I interrogate those approaches proposing the state as a strategic mechanism to combat and overcome the crisis. It is outlined that the class-based (non-neutral) character of the state will tend to reproduce the prevailing capitalist relations of production, namely the basic conditions for the generation and exacerbation of this crisis. As is finally suggested, it is only with a revolutionary transformation of society that the working social majority will be able to radically undo the fundamental causes of the crisis and create the conditions for a peaceful and sustainable development on a planetary level.

KEYWORDS:

• Socio-ecological crisis
• state
• revolution
• capitalism
• communism

Acknowledgements

My gratitude is due to Prof. S. Engel-Di Mauro and the anonymous referees of the journal for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper, as well as to Federico Berghmans for his editorial assistance. All remaining errors or shortcomings are my own responsibility.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).