Can we represent future generations in myopic democracies? Analyzing the design, feasibility and viability of institutional guardians of future generations

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

Future generations will be affected by political decisions of today, but they do not have a voice in their making. Recognizing that short-termist perspectives shape political decision-making, several democracies created institutional guardians designed to represent the interests of future generations in present-day decision-making, facilitating a long-term view across policy areas. In doing so, they may help to mitigate democratic myopia. However, some scholars are very sceptical of the feasibility and viability of such institutional innovations, given the ubiquitous short-termists pressures in politics. To analyze their feasibility and viability claims conceptually and empirically, this study systematically compares the design features (i.e. political instruments, access to the policy process and to branches of government, legal basis, organizational structure and resources) and the conditions of institutionalization of eight institutional guardians of future generations, four of which did not survive and were dismantled. Although each case is unique, it can be concluded that it is feasible to institutionally represent future generations even under detrimental external conditions. However, guardians that can not only bark but also bite live dangerously. Guardians are most viable when they are designed to be neither too strong nor too weak, and when they have a balanced interdependence with political decision-makers.

Original languageEnglish
JournalPolicy Studies
Number of pages21
ISSN0144-2872
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 26.12.2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

    Research areas

  • Comparative politics, democracy, democratic short-termism, institutions for future generations, intergenerational justice, sustainability governance
  • Sustainability Governance
  • Politics

Recently viewed

Researchers

  1. Jörn Obermann

Publications

  1. Shifting Competency Requirements for IT Professionals in the Digital Transformation: A Competency Transformation Process Model
  2. Diverse values and a common utopia
  3. Jeder Tag wie dieser
  4. Headway Control and Comfort in Vehicle Automation
  5. Effects of different video- or text-based reflection stimuli on pre-service teachers’ emotions, immersion, cognitive load and knowledge-based reasoning
  6. Predicting Travel Patterns of Senior Citizens
  7. Lagrangian analysis of long-term dynamics of turbulent superstructures
  8. An Advanced Double Column-Switching Technique (LC-LC) for Liquid Chromatography/Electrospray Ionisation Tandem Mass Spectrometry for Fully Automated Analysis of Caspofungin
  9. Communicating effectively about CSR on Twitter
  10. Von "cool" zu Klärung
  11. National ecosystem restoration pledges are mismatched with social-ecological enabling conditions
  12. Morphometric differentiation in a specialised snail predatior
  13. Cultivating dispersed collectivity
  14. Analysis of mechanical properties and microstructure of single and double-pass friction stir welded T-joints for aluminium stiffened Panels
  15. Demographic change in work organisations
  16. Soziale Netzwerke im Internet
  17. TACKLING THE GLOBAL WASTE PROBLEM AS A MULTI-LEVEL PROCESS
  18. Understanding Resulting Interdependencies Within Production Planning And Control In Hybrid Manufacturing/Remanufacturing Systems
  19. The Achilles' Heel of Absolute Power
  20. CSR and tax avoidance: A review of empirical research
  21. Markenwert
  22. Messung von Markenvorstellungen
  23. Making sense of sustainability transitions locally
  24. Start-up Consulting in the German Language Realm
  25. Der Sandbox Innovation Process: Wie Vielfalt in Open-Innovation-Communities genutzt werden
  26. Temperature-dependent mechanical behavior of aluminum AM structures generated via multi-layer friction surfacing
  27. On entrepreneurial risk-taking and the macroeconomic effects of financial constraints
  28. Earnings less risk-free interest charge (ERIC) and stock returns: ERIC’s relative and incremental information content in a European sample
  29. Schwerbehinderung