César Valenzuela

Climate activists sometimes resort to harmful practices and are thereby portrayed as undemocratic. But insofar as climate change threatens democratic governance, could such practices be permissible in a democratic society because they defend democracy? This paper offers a framework to assess harmful practices that defend democracy and examines the permissibility of ecotage (sabotage of fossil fuel infrastructure to disincentivize investment in fossil fuels). A practice defends democracy whenever it impedes other practices or actions from undermining the institutions and structures needed for democratic governance. More specifically, ecotage defends democracy by fighting a threat to the background structures of democracy. However, ecotage remains conditionally permissible. It is a necessary and proportionate harm with some chance of succeeding at disincentivizing fossil fuel investment and averting a threat to democracy. To remain permissible, though, ecotage must prevent downstream effects that may undermine democratic systems.