In 1992 I was teaching a class of year 11 students. They were concerned about climate change. I had some good news for them. The Rio de Janeiro earth summit had resolved to protect our future; Rio’s big idea quickly became known as a carbon tax. The aim was to protect earth’s future by making a commitment to sustainable development.
Many of the politicians who made those commitments to help create a sustainable future are long gone. Today’s politicians are reassuring us that by 2050 we will have our sustainable future. By then I will be 102. I expect that by 2050 a new justification will be found to continue to kick the can down the road.
In the 1940s and 1950s most western democracies had developed a social contract. It described a reciprocal relationship whereby governments delivered social and economic benefits to citizens, and in return citizens contributed to the common good – on the assumption that the State would ensure a minimum standard of living, the provision of essential social services and infrastructure and the protection of their basic rights. Although in the 21st century citizens continue to contribute to the common good; the state no longer keeps its side of the bargain.
This has resulted in a seismic shift in the democratic tectonic plates. People have begun to acknowledge that central government is part of the problem that frustrates attempts to develop sustainable lifestyles. The political response from the right has been to seek to exploit this dissatisfaction by a form of populism that blames all our problems on either migrants, the ‘deep state’, foreign actors the growth in A.I. or on all of these.
Globally there has been a decline in support for parliamentary democracy. Where voting is voluntary there has been a decline in participation. In Australia we have seen a decline in support for the major parties – elections are no longer just a contest between the ALP and the Coalition. Minor parties and independents are shaping the nature of our parliaments at both national and state level. Their popularity is not just centred on sustainability, arguably they reflect one of the motivating factors behind Brexit namely the desire to take back control of our political institutions.
These are some of the green shoots that could herald a shift in political orientation. An orientation that no longer is pre-occupied with the left and right but one which assumes that another world is possible and invites greater participation in decision making. Thus President Biden in his State of the Union Address focussed on the need to ensure that the burdens and benefits arising out of social co-operation are fairly distributed. The opening of the U.K. parliament saw reference to a devolution of power sharing. The core idea being that local government is best placed to identify and address local needs. A newly elected government in South Africa is committed to introducing a Universal Basic Income. In Australia the treasurer’s paper Capitalism After the Crisis is a call for a shift in our political culture.
Political parties are faced with an uncomfortable choice. Either they can buy into the populist narrative and blame all of our problems on a gaggle of factors outside our control or bite the bullet and develop strategies that devolve our system away from a representative democracy to a participatory democracy.
Now is the ideal time to do this. As Greta Thunberg has demonstrated her generation is acutely aware of the challenges that we face. It is time we unleashed the potential of the generation that will need to steer us through the challenges we face. To do this we need to do choose to learn the lessons from our recent history. Covid taught us that a programme like job keeper empowered individuals and communities to take greater control over their lives but equally it illustrated the danger of programmes that leave some of us behind. We are all in this together and so we need to work together to lift all of us up.
The bushfires and floods taught us the importance of local governance. We learnt the latent potential in communities when they are given the opportunity to contribute to shared challenges. Informal leadership networks emerged but far too often those networks were seen as a threat to, rather an opportunity for, established government networks.
As we recovered from Covid we saw the weaknesses inherent in globalisation. Can we really afford to create a society that is dependent on global networks? Can we afford to base on economy on the assumption that international trade will always be our paymaster? It is time to unleash our potential by taking three steps.
Firstly, we need to encourage community participation – we need to develop the growing trend to local democracy where communities develop programs that satisfy their local needs. Transition engineering would include communities using 3D printers to make parts for machinery that wears out, building local power grids, encouraging cottage industries for their clothing and food. We need to develop and encourage social entrepreneurship.
Secondly, we would need to implement a universal basic income. Nothing new about a UBI – the reason for it was summed up by Aldus Manutius (1449 -1515): ‘for most, the freedom to take risks and create begins with the freedom from want’. A UBI will give a measure of independence. The cloud capitalists or the new feudal lords rely on people needing them – the greater our capacity to live independently the less power they have.
Thirdly, we need to broaden the idea of the creative commons. Covid has illustrated that we are all in this together. This means that we need to share strategies and solutions that draw upon the publicly funded research carried out by the universities. Technology can empower us or can be the means to create technofeudalism.
But perhaps most importantly we need our youth. The young are not shackled to the past. Our leaders have grown up in a neo-liberal world for them, they have been trapped by Thatcher’s rally cry “there is no alternative”. The youth have the courage to respond with ‘why not?’
John Töns is a political philosopher and activist. His most recent book John Rawls and Environmental Justice describes a mode of governance that will enable communities to implement a sustainable and socially just future.
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