"Carbon Democracy": Oil Wealth and its Impacts on Power and Democracy

In his paper “Carbon Democracy,” Timothy Mitchell argues that oil and other widely-used sources of energy give power to countries that have abundant supplies of these resources. He opens his paper by asserting that “Fossil fuels helped create both the possibility of modern democracy and its limits” (1). He also believes that having abundant supplies of oil makes a country less democratic, as demonstrated by the countries of the Middle East, whose governmental stability has been tenuous at best over the last several decades. Mitchell believes that oil creates power because it can be used to generate revenues and wealth for a country. Because money equals power, countries that produce vast amounts of oil often see greater power in the international arena. Mitchell argues that countries that produce large amounts of oil are often less democratic because this wealth can be used to buy support for political campaigns, ward off protests and rebellion, and generate price subsidies. I would like to refute both of Mitchell’s arguments on oil: that oil both creates power and represses democracy.

There are numerous examples of countries that produce vast amounts of oil but are not all that powerful. While the amount of oil wealth generated by countries such as Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates is quite large, these countries do not hold nearly as much power in the international arena as the Western democracies of the world. While the United States is a good example of a country with lots of oil wealth and lots of power, countries that produce hardly any oil at all still hold lots of power in international affairs. The developed countries of Western Europe, including France, Spain, and Germany do not produce their own oil, yet they still remain among the world’s major powers. Why is this? Perhaps it is due to the strong indicators of democracy present in these countries. In addition, these countries are powerful simply because they have strong economies and generate lots of wealth. We can see this when we compare them to the oil-producing countries of the Middle East, whose GDPs per capita are much lower.

Furthermore, Mitchell argues that vast amounts of oil repress democracy because of the potential for oil wealth to create corruption, especially in politically tenuous countries such as those of the Middle East. While this may be true in that particular region of the world, it is far from true in countries such as the US, Venezuela, and Brazil, who all hold large amounts of oil wealth yet are still flourishing, functioning democracies. While Mitchell believes that oil acts as a barrier to democracy—as it certainly does in some states—it is still an important economic component of the world’s more powerful countries. Mitchell states that “The leading industrialized countries are also oil states. Without the energy they derive from oil their current forms of political and economic life would not exist. Their citizens have developed ways of eating, travelling, housing themselves and consuming other goods and services that require very large amounts of energy from oil and other fossil fuels” (6). While Mitchell believes that oil is harmful to democracy, he also recognizes that it is a huge aspect of people’s lives in developed countries. In my opinion, this takes away from the strength of his argument because he states that oil is harmful to democracy, but then states that the world’s more powerful countries—all of whom are democracies—are highly dependent on oil. “Countries that depend upon petroleum resources for a large part of their earnings from exports tend to be less democratic” (1), Mitchell states in the opening of his paper. I disagree with this statement because the democracies of Western Europe rely solely upon exports in order to obtain oil, yet are far from “less democratic.”

What can we do about this problem? In my opinion, the only solution is to move away from oil as quickly as possible. While oil dependency is hardly linked to power dynamics, the potential for its production to create conflict in politically corrupt areas of the world is enough to promote action. In order to avoid these conflicts, we must attempt to pursue clean, renewable sources of energy further so that environmental degradation is limited and conflict is avoided. This may be difficult, however, especially in areas of the world that are located near vast oil reserves, making oil the preferred source of energy.