Miss Ecem Gacener1
1Izmir University of Economics, Turkey
Biography:
Ecem is undertaking a PhD in Political Science and International Relations at Izmir University of Economics. She completed her undergraduate and graduate education at Yasar University in International Relations department. The functioning of the licensing process, the European Union courses, triggered the policy of doing more work in this field. The knowledge Ecem gained during her graduate education on the mechanisms, functioning and policies of the European Union also forms an important basis for her doctoral studies. In her doctoral thesis, Ecem develop a more comprehensive analysis on democratization processes and environmental policies by using both quantitative and qualitative methods.
Abstract:
The climate crisis constitutes one of the important agenda issues in today's politics. These changes taking place around the world, give us signals about what the new normal will be like. At this point, government policies play a decisive role and actually the point of discussion starts here. From past to present, most researchers have argued that democracy is most likely to combat climate change. However, countries in different parts of the world are currently facing democratic backsliding accompanied by rising far-right parties. In this context, right-leaning leaders are developing legal reforms that are ignore, deny, excuse and encourage the natural devastation in the name of economic progress and development of industries. Within the scope of all these, the questions that the research wants to answer are, do strong democratic institutions that encourage environmental advocacy and high levels of citizen participation lead to more sustainable practices? Furthermore, do leaders in regimes where less democratic values are at the forefront consider long-term environmental protection to be more important than immediate financial gain? These different approaches raise main research question: Is democracy the best solution to the environmental crisis we currently face?
Key words: democracy, democratic backsliding, environmental policies