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Welcome to the Foundation for Democracy and Sustainable Development

Welcome to the website of the Foundation for Democracy and Sustainable Development.

We are a small charity working to develop ideas and innovative practices so that democratic decision-making can work better for sustainable development.

We believe that democracy will need to adapt and evolve to meet twenty-first century sustainable development challenges, and that it will need to do so fast. 

Issues like climate change, resource scarcity and population growth will create huge pressures for democratic decision-making. The risk is that badly prepared democracies may become less democratic as a result of these pressures.

Sustainable development calls for concerted efforts to make sure that democracy is resilient. 

Our events, analysis and engagement aim to work out who needs to do what to make sure that democracy delivers sustainable development.

“If we want to tackle climate change, we will need more democracy not less. Not only within countries, but also between countries“.
Chandra Bhushan, Associate Director, Centre for Science and Environment

“Unsustainable development has been described as the biggest market failure the world has ever seen. Yet surely it is the biggest failure of democracy the world has ever seen.”
Sara Parkin, Founder Director, Forum for the Future

“[We need] a democracy for posterity, an ecological democracy that enables both the citizen and the representative to be capable of designing sustainable futures for a very long way ahead…”
Professor Tim O’Riordan

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From the Blog

February 2, 2010 – 7:15 pm

The lure of benign dictatorship

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There is a narrative which is emerging on the fringes of green politics – in throw-away comments, or after a few drinks – which characterises Copenhagen as not just the…
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January 4, 2010 – 9:40 pm

Corporate responsibility, democracy and climate change

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I’m re-reading a paper of mine that has just been published by the International Research Network on Business, Development and Society.

The paper is called “Corporate Social Responsibility: What Next?”, and it…

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December 28, 2009 – 4:50 pm

Democracy as a killer app

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…

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December 22, 2009 – 1:44 pm

Copenhagen Climate Summit widens rift between local and global approaches to climate change

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I’m back in London after a week in Copenhagen at various climate events. Almost everything climate-related that happened in and around Copenhagen over the past two weeks offers rich pickings…

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December 18, 2009 – 5:10 pm

A possible pathway to revolutionary change for democracy, environmental justice and sustainable development

In a new paper published on this website, sustainability campaigner Charles Secrett sets out a possible pathway for achieving revolutionary change towards democracy, environmental justice and sustainable development.

As Charles explains:…

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