A Benevolent Autocracy and the Environment
(2020) STVK12 20201Department of Political Science
- Abstract
- Democracy is often thought to be the most beneficial political regime for the environment. However, a persistent line of argument lays claim that a specific authoritarian type of governance is needed to manage environmental crises effectively. Authoritarian environmentalism is a concept that emerged during the 1970s when rapid industrialization caused severe environmental hazards. This ideology advocated the use of non-democratic measures to combat the environmental crisis as democracy was perceived as ineffective in managing the environment. While authoritarian environmentalism has been deconstructed from a historical perspective, it has yet to be situated in relation to discourse. This thesis aims to investigate how authoritarian... (More)
- Democracy is often thought to be the most beneficial political regime for the environment. However, a persistent line of argument lays claim that a specific authoritarian type of governance is needed to manage environmental crises effectively. Authoritarian environmentalism is a concept that emerged during the 1970s when rapid industrialization caused severe environmental hazards. This ideology advocated the use of non-democratic measures to combat the environmental crisis as democracy was perceived as ineffective in managing the environment. While authoritarian environmentalism has been deconstructed from a historical perspective, it has yet to be situated in relation to discourse. This thesis aims to investigate how authoritarian environmentalism has been discursively constructed. Discourse examines the meaning and the manner in which meaning is constructed. In order to do so, this thesis assumes an argumentative discourse analysis approach while reviewing spoken statements from a single case study. Singapore was selected as the most appropriate case study due to its political regimes and environmental standpoint. This thesis will identify that national pride, consideration of future generations, individuality, and struggle to survive makeup AE discursive constructs in Singapore. Consequently, it can be concluded that using by discourse analysis, it was possible to show how Singaporean leadership envisioned the role of the environment in creating national solidarity in a post-colonial society. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9011002
- author
- Put, Lisa LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- STVK12 20201
- year
- 2020
- type
- M2 - Bachelor Degree
- subject
- keywords
- Autocracy, Environment, Authoritarian environmentalism, post-colonial, discourse analysis
- language
- English
- id
- 9011002
- date added to LUP
- 2020-08-05 11:20:48
- date last changed
- 2020-08-05 11:20:48
@misc{9011002,
abstract = {{Democracy is often thought to be the most beneficial political regime for the environment. However, a persistent line of argument lays claim that a specific authoritarian type of governance is needed to manage environmental crises effectively. Authoritarian environmentalism is a concept that emerged during the 1970s when rapid industrialization caused severe environmental hazards. This ideology advocated the use of non-democratic measures to combat the environmental crisis as democracy was perceived as ineffective in managing the environment. While authoritarian environmentalism has been deconstructed from a historical perspective, it has yet to be situated in relation to discourse. This thesis aims to investigate how authoritarian environmentalism has been discursively constructed. Discourse examines the meaning and the manner in which meaning is constructed. In order to do so, this thesis assumes an argumentative discourse analysis approach while reviewing spoken statements from a single case study. Singapore was selected as the most appropriate case study due to its political regimes and environmental standpoint. This thesis will identify that national pride, consideration of future generations, individuality, and struggle to survive makeup AE discursive constructs in Singapore. Consequently, it can be concluded that using by discourse analysis, it was possible to show how Singaporean leadership envisioned the role of the environment in creating national solidarity in a post-colonial society.}},
author = {{Put, Lisa}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{A Benevolent Autocracy and the Environment}},
year = {{2020}},
}