[Séminaire d'axe] Perspectives on the Political Economy of Climate Coalitions

The climate transition has become a central concern of contemporary political economy. It challenges existing growth regimes and the redistributive compromises that have historically sustained advanced capitalist democracies. This seminar brings together the authors of two recent books that place political conflict and social coalitions at the centre of analyses of the political economy of climate transition.

In La Coalition climat (2025), Pierre Charbonnier analyses the climate transition as a process of political-economic realignment. Decarbonisation destabilises fossil-based growth models and intensifies conflicts surrounding employment, welfare, production, and territorial inequality. He introduces the concept of ‘climate coalitions’ to capture the conditions under which heterogeneous social groups may be aligned around shared climate objectives through redistributive and protective forms of state action.

In Growth, Democracy, or Climate Action? The New Trilemma of Advanced Capitalism (2026), Aidan Regan, Hanna Schwander, Cyril Benoît, and Tim Vlandas demonstrate how governments are increasingly confronted with unescapable trade-offs between growth, democracy, and effective climate action. They similarly argue that navigating this trilemma requires the rebuilding of state capacities, while emphasising that the success of this project ultimately depends on forging broad rural-urban coalitions that unite working- and middle-class voters.

While departing from distinct analytical starting points, both perspectives converge on coalition fragmentation, coalition formation, and coalition-building as the core tensions in the political economy of climate action. This seminar will place these approaches in dialogue, highlighting both their points of contrast and their shared diagnosis of the political foundations – and limits – of contemporary transition pathways.

Discussant

Matthias Thiemann, Sciences Po, CEE 

Chair

Zsófi Barta, Sciences Po, CEE