Scope and limitations of Democracy YES Presentation and discussion
Thursday, 14. October 2010 | 14:00 Uhr
Speaker
Reporting
In a role play, participants assumed the task of governing different countries such as Germany, Canada, Kenya, Columbia, Pakistan and Serbia. On the one hand, they had the task to increase their country’s prosperity through fishing as the only source of income. On the other hand, they had to be careful to not lose the favour of the voters. This situation confronted several “governments” with real problems. The head of the workshop Fabio Segura of YES Youth Encounter on Sustainability summarized the results of the simulation as follows: A functioning democracy should allow people to make choices that maximize their well-being as a society. However, at a global and long-term scale, democracies (and other forms of government) have produced decisions that undermine the ability of nations to pursue inter and intra-generational well-being. How can democracy allow us to address effectively the most pressing global challenges? By building societies’ competence to achieve and maintain well-being through sound management of commons:
Clarity in perception of the system and its carrying capacity
Assured transparency in the use of the system
Design of effective regulation and control mechanisms with sanctioning power
Development and introduction of conductive value system
Acceptance of social and economic costs of sustainability
