At a time when political sensitivities and economic realities acknowledge the eradication of energy poverty to be both a moral and material imperative, and in an era where citizens' demands for an expansion and deepening of inclusionary economic and political institutions punctuate the globe, it remains curious that policy makers have not robustly connected the two areas explicitly. For the laws of political ecology are not wholly unlike the laws of natural ecology in the interconnected nature of their object's components and the very potent symbiotic relationships contained therein. The argument advanced in this brief essay maintains that the pursuit of energy service provision runs through the public domains of open deliberation, shared infrastructure and inclusionary governance structures, and that a more defined and symmetrical programmatic treatment of the two would facilitate a more expeditious and effective realization of both. Apropos of this, the Electricity Governance Initiative maintains that, By strengthening electricity governancethe processes, institutions, and actors that shape how such decisions are madecountries can develop more equitable and sustainable electricity policies. Transparent, inclusive and accountable electricity governance can ensure that decisions taken work in the public interest.Common and central to both the quest for a greater voice in the economic and political affairs that affect our daily lives (here captured in the admittedly contestable term 'democratization'), and the more fundamental need for modern energy services, is the vital role played by institutions, and specifically political institutions. Aristotle captured the dominant role politics plays by referring to it as the 'architectonic science'. More recently, economists Acemoglu and Robinson 1 provide us with a vibrant range of historical examples of how nations flounder or flourish economically depending on the nature of their political institutions. Following a long line of scholarship and empirical analysis, Acemoglu and Robinson conclude that, 'While economic institutions are critical for determining whether a country is poor or prosperous, it is politics and political institutions that determine what economic institutions a country has.'The 'discovery' that politics lies at the heart of our social and economic livelihoods is certainly far from surprising. What is startling however is that development professionals and foreign policy practitioners generally have not linked the myriad platitudes and programs designed to encourage good governance and democratization to our multiple policies and projects attempting to significantly expand access to modern energy services to the millions suffering from energy poverty. As a result, the situation in many parts of the world (such as much of sub-Saharan Africa) has remained unchanged over the last three decades. The premise here is that a symbiotic relationship exists between our broader democratization programs and our more narrowly defined energy sector reform programs...
