The interface between local citizen-led action and representative democracy is right at the cutting edge of sustainable development.
There has already been a lot of work on community empowerment in relation to existing processes of local government (this is ‘inside-out’ thinking; mostly motivated by the need to reinvigorate existing processes of representative democracy).
‘Outside-in’ thinking would mean working with community groups that focus on sustainable development issues. It would mean a bottom-up process of thinking about how community organising could help democracy to work for sustainable development.
There are also wider questions about how community groups self-organise on issues related to sustainable development in the public sphere, and what happens when they choose not to engage with local government or to develop alternative approaches.
In the…
Category: Blog, local democracy
Tags: community empowerment, consultation, direct democracy, duty to involve, Infrastructure Planning Commission, local government, Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act, Regional Development Authorities, representative democracy, Sustainable Communities Act, Transition Towns
A reflection by Niall Ferguson in today’s Financial Times on the historical significance of the past decade struck me as particularly apt and insightful. He explores the reasons behind the astonishing – and accelerating – shift to the east in the world’s economic (and, ultimately, political) centre of gravity. In the process, he asks what it was that gave the West its “ascendancy”, through the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Enlightenment and the ensuing race around the world, as far as the Antipodes?
His answer is that the West benefited from six “killer apps”. These were: “the capitalist enterprise, the scientific method, a legal and political system based on private property rights and individual freedom, traditional imperialism, the consumer society and what Weber…
I came across two interesting new UN documents whilst in New York earlier this week. Both are dated September 11th 2009; 9/11.
The first is a Guidance Note of the Secretary General on the United Nations Approach to Democracy. This has emerged out of consultations within the Inter-Agency Working Group on Democracy of the Executive Committee on Peace and Security, and sets out ‘the United Nations framework for democracy’.
The second document is an ‘advanced unedited copy’ Report of the Secretary General on climate change and its possible security implications. The summary of the latter identifies ‘democratic governance’ as one of the ‘threat minimizers’ which can help to lower the risks of climate-related insecurity.
Our own open letter to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, four days later on International…
Democracy within countries doesn’t only come from electorates and citizens at national or local level. Sometimes in our globalised world the course of democratisation can be directed from the outside, by international agencies, foreign governments, or bilateral or multilateral development cooperation agencies. Whether this is inherently a good or a bad thing depends in large part on context and on distribution of power and influence.
One need only think of the process of democratisation by means of the war in Iraq, and the ongoing role of occupying forces in supporting the democratically elected government, to trigger reflection on the rights and wrongs of democratisation. Where is sustainable development in the process?
Economic development, public institution-building and human rights are certainly visible themes.…
