Agentic operators
Hausknost helps to grasp the limits of an understanding of democracy that con- flates it with the search for consensus and unanimity. He distinguishes three “agentic operators” that determine “the ways in which societal reality is reproduced and changed”: choice, solution and decision (p. 358). Choice, at the core of market economies, is performed in undecidable situations, i.e., in a field of incommensurable alternatives, but does not eliminate options, thereby producing “aggregate results outside the political system” (p. 367). Sustainable consumption is an example (e.g., choosing organic coffee). Solution is the generic operator of science and technology as well as of public administrations. It eliminates options in decidable situations, i.e., in a field with different but commensurable alternatives. Based on clear criteria, the best, i.e., most efficient, option is taken, for example, a decarbonised energy mix. Finally, decision concerns the elimination of options within an undecidable field of incommensurabilities, selecting “between different political rationalities and world views”, such as financing railways rather than motorways. Contemporary representative mass democracies, Hausknost argues, tend to avoid decisions and thus depoliticise the path towards transformation. As both choice and administrative rationality (solution) favour regime stability over transformative potential, empowering decision making is crucial for creating new forms of provisioning. Politics, in this sense, is about deciding between incommensurabilities in situations of uncertainty
| Alternatives commensurable | Eliminates options | |
|---|---|---|
| Choice | No | No |
| Solution | Yes | Yes |
| Decision | No | Yes |
References
- Bärnthaler, Richard, Andreas Novy, and Leonhard Plank. “The Foundational Economy as a Cornerstone for a Social–Ecological Transformation.” Sustainability 13, no. 18 (January 2021): 10460. https://doi.org/10.3390/su131810460.