Is democracy compatible with de-growth?

[cprise]

20. Wealthy elites are less concerned about AGW than the public

I would even say that is the nature of the problem itself: In a plutocracy/oligarchy the rich can always displace the poor from any place they identify as an environmental "high ground", and dump the consequences of cheap-and-polluting processes onto the poor. They have every reason to stall as long as they can tell themselves their offspring will have greater advantages in a world that takes its revenge on people who will become ever more desperate to serve them.

The elites are using the un-democratic features of the system to prevent change, and their tendency for obstruction and denial increase as the gulf between rich and poor increases. I suspect if we had something closer to a true/direct democracy then there would be plenty of political capital available for exploring degrowth.

There may be *some* way of moving toward more democracy (or at least reversing the oligarchic trend) if computers can be adapted to the task. However, the mass-market components of today would just create more BBV (black box voting) scenarios which are a step backward. Emerging open systems would need to be adapted to the task of voting almost on a daily basis.

Such an experiment would be preferable to authoritarian systems, IMO.