ABSTRACT
Chapter 6 argues that Hegelian thinking was an unexpected influence on the implementation of neoliberal and, increasingly, post-neoliberal mechanisms of environmental regulation by the capitalist state. The Hegelian notion of the state as the ultimate promoter of collective reason and political ethics has permitted the expansion of state responsibilities to the realm of socionatural interactions, going far beyond the simple appropriation of natural resources. The Hegelian conceptualisation of the modern state – idealised as the immanence of state power and reason, and the essential role of political and economic differences as historical forces – provided the necessary justification for the renewal of environmental statehood.
