http://www.sustainablechina.info/2009/02/23/is-democracy-good-for-sustainability/ researching religious values for ecological sustainability Thu, 02 Sep 2010 17:24:21 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc http://www.sustainablechina.info/2009/02/23/is-democracy-good-for-sustainability/comment-page-1/#comment-300 Anne Sun, 08 Mar 2009 23:32:57 +0000 http://www.sustainablechina.info/?p=224#comment-300 I would say that democracy is good for sustainability to the extent that the voting population is engaged and wants sustainability. Or even sustainability at all costs. It is growing on the agenda as an issue to be dealt with, but with democracy "growing" tends to not equal the majority needed to get the representation to get things done. So whether democracy is good for sustainability is slightly a red herring in my opinion. Democracy is not necessarily good nor bad for sustainability. If the leadership engages it as a policy, it almost matters not whether it is done as a result of democracy or authoritarianism. The Chinese government may indeed have put the regulations in that the article requires. The Chinese population, at least as of 2002, still disposed of rubbish on trains by throwing it out the window, with extra points for getting it in a stream as the stream would wash it away. The population in democratic countries may be beginning to push sustainability. The leadership hasn't caught on yet. My question becomes "is capitalism good for sustainability?" and the answer is "it can be if we make it so." Which comes to think of it is the same answer to your original question. I would say that democracy is good for sustainability to the extent that the voting population is engaged and wants sustainability. Or even sustainability at all costs. It is growing on the agenda as an issue to be dealt with, but with democracy “growing” tends to not equal the majority needed to get the representation to get things done. So whether democracy is good for sustainability is slightly a red herring in my opinion. Democracy is not necessarily good nor bad for sustainability. If the leadership engages it as a policy, it almost matters not whether it is done as a result of democracy or authoritarianism. The Chinese government may indeed have put the regulations in that the article requires. The Chinese population, at least as of 2002, still disposed of rubbish on trains by throwing it out the window, with extra points for getting it in a stream as the stream would wash it away. The population in democratic countries may be beginning to push sustainability. The leadership hasn’t caught on yet. My question becomes “is capitalism good for sustainability?” and the answer is “it can be if we make it so.” Which comes to think of it is the same answer to your original question.

]]> http://www.sustainablechina.info/2009/02/23/is-democracy-good-for-sustainability/comment-page-1/#comment-297 james Wed, 25 Feb 2009 15:25:11 +0000 http://www.sustainablechina.info/?p=224#comment-297 You may be interested to know that the majority of my students voted "no." You may be interested to know that the majority of my students voted “no.”

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