Like the polar bear and the Indian tiger, democratic states are species in danger

Copenhegen Debacle : Prof. Ronen Palan.

Two crisis, which the governments are managing at this moment-financial and ecological, are the examples of success and failure of the democracy in a globalised world. Modern democratic states are proving once more that they are capable of mobilising themselves for rapidly managing the situations of economic and financial crisis but incapable of reacting in a serious manner for handling problems of long term.

Our political men know very well that the current ecological disaster will cost some $ 50,000 billions more than the wealth destroyed during the financial crisis. But who will take very difficult decisions necessary for reorienting completely our economies and life style from the model of mass production towards a model of new production system where society is free form carbon. When the only certainty is that the cost of this will be born by the voters of today and the benefits by those of tomorrow, when the present governments would have disappeared from the scene.

Other political systems, do they better? In an article to appear in the journal, Environmental Politics, Mark Beeson, an expert on China, declares that democracies are in danger. Why? Because, the authoritarian states like the Chinese state, have comparative advantage in handling seriously problems created by the industrial revolution. In fact, this economist shows that there are only Chinese and North Korean governments that have really started taking measures towards the transition to a World free from carbon. Why then will these countries adopt the democratic system which they find less effective?

The Copenhegan Conference was supposed to offer a customary theatre and postures which we expect from our leaders. We heard a lot of the menace which weighs on our future and promises made by them. But most of us ask whether they would like and they could hold their promises.

Unfortunately, the answer is probably negative and this inaction will strike blows on our democracies. Our political systems are the product of certain ecology and seem to survive only in a world of production always very big and in a market always very large. As they are leaving the planet to get destroyed without reacting, the democratic states will find themselves as a species in danger, just as the polar bears and Indian tigers. A situation which they do not seem to still understand.

Courtesy : Alternatives Economiques No 286 Dec. 2006