Governance, Democracy and Sustainable Development

Moving Beyond the Impasse

Edited by James Meadowcroft, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada, Oluf Langhelle, University of Stavanger, Norway and Audun Ruud, Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, Norway

The contributors explore the difficulties developed countries are experiencing in coming to terms with environmental limits and the resultant challenges to the democratic polity. They engage with different dimensions of the governance challenge including norms, public attitudes, citizen engagement, political conflict, policy design, and implementation, and with a range of environmental problems such as climate change, biodiversity/nature protection, and water management. The book concludes with an essay by William Lafferty that explores the flawed character of the contemporary democratic polity and offers his reflections on possible pathways to reform.

‘The editors of this volume bring together an impressive cast of scholars on the critical relationship of democracy and governance in sustainable development. It offers an outstanding and timely contribution to the literatures in sustainability, political science, and comparative environmental politics.’
– Daniel J. Fiorino, American University, US

‘This very timely and important collection draws together some of the world’s leading thinkers on environment and development to debate one of the most important issues of our time: sustainable development. They very usefully remind us all that in order to be politically sustainable, the sustainability transition will have to find a way to maximise policy synergies in a democratically legitimate manner.’
– Andy Jordan, University of East Anglia, UK