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Democracy as a killer app

Posted By John Elkington on 28th December, 2009

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…

Also posted in Blog, democracy, democratisation, innovations Leave a comment

Civil society leaders meetings

Posted By Halina Ward on 4th September, 2009

Civil society has an important role to play in driving change and innovation in democracy for sustainable development.

Non-governmental organisations in the UK are already a hot-bed for innovation in both democracy and sustainable development. But the two sets of concerns…

Tags: civil society, NGOs, third sector Leave a comment

Global governance, democracy and sustainable development

Posted By Halina Ward on 3rd September, 2009

Democracy between nations

The challenges of achieving democracy in relations between governments are well known.

In the United Nations, voting generally proceeds on the basis of ‘one country one vote’, not ‘one citizen one vote’. There is no ‘world parliament of citizens’…

Tags: global governance, ISO 26000, UN, WSSD Leave a comment

Learning from Hungary’s Green Ombudsman

Posted By Halina Ward on 3rd September, 2009

Sustainable development calls for efforts to promote long-term thinking in democratic decision-making. Both the interests of future generations and of the environment need to be properly considered.

Hungary’s Parliament has taken an innovative step in this direction. In 2007, Parliament decided to create a new independent watchdog function;…

Tags: environmental rights, future generations, Hungary, ombudsman Leave a comment

The future of democracy in the face of climate change

Posted By Halina Ward on 2nd September, 2009

Background

It is clear that established systems of citizen participation and democracy will struggle to cope with the multiple challenges and trade-offs of climate change management; but how they might evolve or what might emerge to replace them is unclear.

Less democracy, more…

Tags: climate change, democracy Leave a comment

Community self-organisation, democracy and sustainable development

Posted By Halina Ward on 2nd September, 2009

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…

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 Leave a comment

Democracy and sustainability in emerging markets: India as a case study

Posted By Halina Ward on 4th February, 2009

When and how does democracy facilitate sustainable development? This was the central question for participants at a three-day event held in New Delhi from 2 to 4 February 2009.

The event was organised by 21st Century Trust and Salzburg Global Seminar…

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Democracy and sustainability: London meetings

Posted By Halina Ward on 30th March, 2008

Can we vote our way to a sustainable future for a world of 9 billion people – or are new forms of leadership going to be necessary?
What kinds of systems of governance and decision-making best place countries and people to…