Political Participation And Sustainability

Over the last two decades, the literature on political participation has flourished, reflecting the increasing use of diverse modes of citizen involvement. These include established modes of participation, such as voting, protests, mass demonstrations, and petition signing, but also newer modes specific to the online environment (ICT-related), participation in referendums, public consultations, or engagement in political deliberation. The importance and intensity of these modes is reflected both in the number of people getting involved and in the increasing number of policies that are subject to various modes of participation on a regular basis. There is extensive literature about how these modes of participation function, why people get involved, and the consequences of their participation. However, limited attention is paid to the relationship between political participation and the pursuit of sustainability at a local, regional, or central level. Existing studies indicate that citizen engagement can be a cost-effective method to characterize changes of local environments; however, not much is known beyond this process. This Special Issue aims to address this void in the literature and brings together contributions that analyze how participation can be associated with sustainability and local development in various settings. It explores the relationship between political participation and the management of their local environment. This Special Issue enhances the existing knowledge and understanding about how modes of participation can be reflected in stronger sustainability. The Special Issue provides the space for an academic debate that addresses issues such as climate change, resource allocation, or the pursuit of sustainability programs and policies. The contributions include a mix of single-case studies and comparative analyses across European countries.

Over the last two decades, the literature on political participation has flourished, reflecting the increasing use of diverse modes of citizen involvement. These include established modes of participation, such as voting, protests, mass demonstrations, and petition signing, but also newer modes specific to the online environment (ICT-related), participation in referendums, public consultations, or engagement in political deliberation. The importance and intensity of these modes is reflected both in the number of people getting involved and in the increasing number of policies that are subject to various modes of participation on a regular basis. There is extensive literature about how these modes of participation function, why people get involved, and the consequences of their participation. However, limited attention is paid to the relationship between political participation and the pursuit of sustainability at a local, regional, or central level. Existing studies indicate that citizen engagement can be a cost-effective method to characterize changes of local environments; however, not much is known beyond this process. This Special Issue aims to address this void in the literature and brings together contributions that analyze how participation can be associated with sustainability and local development in various settings. It explores the relationship between political participation and the management of their local environment. This Special Issue enhances the existing knowledge and understanding about how modes of participation can be reflected in stronger sustainability. The Special Issue provides the space for an academic debate that addresses issues such as climate change, resource allocation, or the pursuit of sustainability programs and policies. The contributions include a mix of single-case studies and comparative analyses across European countries.

Explores the extent to which the system of governance allows for the participation of diverse actors. This work examines the obstacles to effective participation and how they can be overcome to improve both the quality of engagement and the resulting systems of sustainable development governance.

For a large proportion of the electorate, national politics misses the real issues. As a result, membership of campaigning organizations has soared whilst party numbers have declined. This work distils the principles and priorities of many of the leading voluntary groups into a strong and coherent programme of political aims and actions. The problem can be measured as a sustainability gap - between official policies and achievements and actual democratic participation, environmental restoration and the eradication of poverty. With examples and short case studies, the book translates the gap into practical and realistic recommendations for progress.

Governments fail to provide the public goods needed for development when its leaders knowingly and deliberately ignore sound technical advice or are unable to follow it, despite the best of intentions, because of political constraints. This report focuses on two forces—citizen engagement and transparency—that hold the key to solving government failures by shaping how political markets function. Citizens are not only queueing at voting booths, but are also taking to the streets and using diverse media to pressure, sanction and select the leaders who wield power within government, including by entering as contenders for leadership. This political engagement can function in highly nuanced ways within the same formal institutional context and across the political spectrum, from autocracies to democracies. Unhealthy political engagement, when leaders are selected and sanctioned on the basis of their provision of private benefits rather than public goods, gives rise to government failures. The solutions to these failures lie in fostering healthy political engagement within any institutional context, and not in circumventing or suppressing it. Transparency, which is citizen access to publicly available information about the actions of those in government, and the consequences of these actions, can play a crucial role by nourishing political engagement.

The contributors to this book critically examine the performance of new modes of governance in areas of limited statehood, drawing on a range of in-depth case studies on issues of climate change, biodiversity, and health. The Paris Agreement for Climate Change or the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) rely on new modes of governance for implementation. New modes of governance such as market-based instruments, public-private partnerships or stakeholder participation initiatives have been praised for playing a pivotal role in effective and legitimate sustainability governance. Yet, do they also deliver in areas of limited statehood? States such as Malaysia or the Dominican Republic partly lack the ability to implement and enforce rules; their domestic sovereignty is limited. Exploring this perspective on governance, the authors demonstrate that areas of limited statehood are not ungoverned or ungovernable spaces. The book elaborates how and under what conditions new modes of governance emerge in areas of limited statehood, and examines their relative effectiveness.

This textbook introduces political ecology as an interdisciplinary approach to critically examine land and environmental issues. Drawing on discourse and narrative analysis, Marxist political economy and insights from natural science, the book points at similarities, differences and inter-connections between environmental governance in the global North and South. A wide range of carefully curated case studies are presented, with a particular focus on Africa and Norway. Key themes of power, justice and environmental sustainability run through all chapters. The authors challenge established views and leading discourses and present research findings that may surprise readers. Chapters cover topics including wildlife conservation, climate change and conflicts, land grabbing, the effects of population growth on the environment, jihadism in the African Sahel, bioprospecting, feminist political ecology, and struggles around carbon mitigation within a fossil fuel-based economy. This introductory text provides tools and examples for both undergraduate and postgraduate students to better understand on-going struggles about some of the world’s most urgent challenges.