Suspending democratic (dis)belief: Nonliberal energy polities of solar power in Morocco and Tanzania

This paper develops follows recent efforts in this journal to critique the concept of energy democracy by highlighting conceptual challenges of incorporating the ‘bad behavior’ of the nonliberal Other, where the bastion of ‘bad behavior’ is thought to be found in “Africa”. This article highlights liberal democratic assumptions of energy democracy through a review of relevant literature emerging from political theory, postcolonial studies and indigenous studies to develop a critique of energy democracy. Doing so requires using different vocabularies for analyzing the plurality of democratic practice and experience around the world that exceed liberal democratic norms. The authors draw on two existing concepts, “sociotechnical imaginaries” (STIMs) and “credibility economies” to investigate the collective governance strategies of subaltern energy polities, which may include nonhuman beings, authoritarian politics, or corruption and violence. We develop this analysis by comparing two African nation-states–Morocco and Tanzania–to show how the states and subaltern groups do (or do not) develop STIMs related to solar power. While international governance organizations often portray Morocco as authoritarian and Tanzania as corrupt, each state differently experienced colonization and decolonization, and practices different relationships with domestic subaltern groups. Whereas low-income citizens and indigenous groups seek integration into the Moroccan state’s STIM, the Maasai in Tanzania chart their own STIM separate from the state and international development groups. The intent is not to promote democratic relativism but rather to ask scholars and international energy-access practitioners to suspend their democratic disbelief when studying energy matters in so-called nonliberal contexts.