RETRACTED: Three Responses to Democracy Problems of Energy Transitions
| Author | Veith Selk,Jörg Kemmerzell |
| Date | 01 November 2020 |
| Published date | 01 November 2020 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032321720907556 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/0032321720953844
Political Studies
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© The Author(s) 2020
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DOI: 10.1177/0032321720953844
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RETRACTION NOTICE:
Three Responses to
Democracy Problems
of Energy Transitions
At the request of the Journal Editors and SAGE Publishing, the following article has been
retracted.
Kemmerzell, J., & Selk, V. (2020). Three Responses to Democracy Problems of Energy
Transitions. Political Studies. https://doi.org/10.1177/0032321720907556
It was brought to the attention of the Journal Editors and SAGE that the above referenced
article includes significant overlap with the authors’ previous publication, published in
German, and this had not been disclosed prior to publication in Political Studies:
Selk, V, Kemmerzell, J & Radtke J. (2019). In der Demokratiefalle? Probleme der
Energiewende zwischen Expertokratie, partizipativer Governance und populistischer
Reaktion, in Energiewende in Zeiten des Populismus. https://doi.org/10.1007/978
-3-658-26103-0_2
For information of SAGE’s prior publication policy, visit: https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/
eur/prior-publication
953844PSX0010.1177/0032321720953844Political Studies
research-article2020
Erratum
https://doi.org/10.1177/0032321720907556
Political Studies
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© The Author(s) 2020
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/0032321720907556
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RETRACTED: Three Responses
to Democracy Problems
of Energy Transitions
Jörg Kemmerzell and Veith Selk
Abstract
The article explores conflicts around energy system transition, explaining them as manifestations
of challenges to democracy, namely, progressive politicization of society, increasing political
differentiation, and growing epistemic asymmetry between citizens, experts, and elites. We argue that
technocratic guardianship, participatory governance, and populist simplification represent three ways of
dealing with these challenges. Technocracy and participatory governance attempt to reconfigure
energy-policy by fostering the principles of guardianship and civic competence. Populism, in turn,
employs a different principle: simplification. It drives a retrograde protest that becomes effective
if neither technocracy nor participatory governance provides a generalizable response. Viewed in
this way, populism turns out to be a reaction to the deficiencies of the other two perspectives.
In order to illustrate this thesis, the article draws on empirical illustration from the German
experience of the Energiewende and its inherent conflicts, and the discourse of the right-wing
populist party Alternative für Deutschland.
Keywords
energy transition, democratic theory, populism, technocracy, participatory governance
Accepted: 28 January 2020
Introduction
Since right-wing populist parties seem to have adopted a skeptical stance regarding cli-
mate change, the effects of populism’s rise on energy and climate policy in general and
energy system transitions in particular are increasingly under discussion (Batel and
Devine-Wright, 2018; Forchtner, 2019; Fraune and Knodt, 2018; Hess and Renner, 2019;
Lockwood, 2018; Schaller and Carius, 2019). This discussion takes place in a peculiar
discursive setting. Concurrently, we can observe a larger trend toward moralization of
public debate (Adamson, 2019; for the German case see Pfaller, 2017; Stegemann, 2018).
The indicators of this are the dwindling tolerance of ambiguity, the rapid “moral sorting”
in political argument, the rising level of political correctness and alarmism, and the
Institute of Political Science, Technische Universitat Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany
Corresponding author:
Jörg Kemmerzell, Institute of Political Science, Technische Universitat Darmstadt, Dolivostrasse 15, 64293
Darmstadt, Germany.
Email: kemmerzell@pg.tu-darmstadt.de
907556PSX0010.1177/0032321720907556Political StudiesKemmerzell and Selk
research-article2020
Article
RETRACTED
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