Foundation for Democracy and Sustainable Development
worked in partnership to resolve the tensions between today’s liberal democracies and the challenges of creating a more environmentally sustainable and inclusive society, which enables wellbeing for all, now and in the future.  It operated from 2009 to 2025, having started life as the Environment Foundation in 1983. In turn, FDSD has now handed on its work to SOIF, the School of International Futures, hosting Fellowships in democracy and sustainable development. This is the FDSD web archive, a record of what has been achieved and what still needs to be done to secure our democratic and sustainable futures – we hope informing and inspiring further work in the field.
A call to do politics differently
FDSD has long supported the wider use of participatory and deliberative processes. Citizens’ assemblies for example have a vital role to play in kick-starting the tough steps needed to respond to the climate emergency, but the detail of how they will work is critical.
Public Participation
Knowledge Network on Climate Assemblies (KNOCA) launched
Climate Assemblies are increasingly being used in a variety of different European countries at different scales of governance to inform policy responses and social action on climate change. The European Climate Foundation has launched the Knowledge Network on Climate Assemblies (KNOCA) as a ‘go to’ place for those seeking considered, rigorous and widely-sourced input on their design and implementation. FDSD’s own Professor Graham Smith has been appointed as the founding chair of the network. —Read more.
Economics is for Everyone!
The economy is an area of decision-making fiercely protected by experts and politicians from public participation. But public confidence in this closed policy community is waning and arguments for democratic participation in an area that so profoundly shapes all our lives are growing. Here, Graham Smith is reflecting on his work with the RSA Citizens’ Economic Council. —Read more.
Pickering and the flood that didn’t happen
Citizen participation and its critics—John Lotherington reflects on the ongoing debate about the impact of the community-led flood defences in Pickering after the town was spared the flooding that hit large parts of northern England in late-2015.—Read more.
Thinking systemically about deliberative democracy and climate change
Deliberative democracy is a collaborative and effective way to develop the concerted, ambitious and creative action needed to respond to climate change. Drawing on his experience in organising mini-publics in Canada, David Kahane notes, that in order to achieve these aims, deliberative approaches need to adopt the tools of system design and thinking to enable people to better understand complex problems and implement action through experimentation and learning. —Read more.
Giving tomorrow’s citizens a voice today
What we do today affects our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. These future generations will have to live with the environments, economies and societies that we leave them – and we have a shared responsibility to pass on something worth having.
Future Generations
Future Generations Commissioners: Learning Lessons from Wales
Peter Davies offers personal reflections on his role in the development of the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales within the broader story of the journey of devolution—a journey that started with the duty to promote sustainable development in the initial Government of Wales Act. — Read more.
The Necessity and Powers of Future Generations Organisations
The imminent ecological crises and our consumer society’s lack of receptivity to this bad news mean that an independent, authentic voice is needed to represent the interests of future generations. Sándor Fülöp draws on his experience as Hungarian Ombudsman to explain the necessity and powers of a future generations organisation. — Read more.
Democratic Reform, Intergenerational Justice and the Challenges of the Long-Term
Philosophical essay by Simon Caney on the morality of prosperity, intertemporal politics and a re-imagination of our political life. — Read more.
The Challenge
At one level, the ideas and reality of sustainable development and democracy overlap and are interdependent. Common to both sustainable development and democracy is participation—the ability of all people to come together and be involved in decisions about how we live and the goals we want to achieve as societies. There are also tensions and differences between the two ideas which need to be resolved in order for current political democratic systems to adapt in the direction of achieving sustainable development.