Institutions For Future Generations

In times of climate change and public debt, a concern for intergenerational justice should lead us to have a closer look at theories of intergenerational justice. It should also press us to provide institutional design proposals to change the decision-making world that surrounds us. This book provides an exhaustive overview of the most important institutional proposals as well as a systematic and theoretical discussion of their respective features and advantages. It focuses on institutional proposals aimed at taking the interests of future generations more seriously, and does so from the perspective of applied political philosophy, being explicit about the underlying normative choices and the latest developments in the social sciences. It provides citizens, activists, firms, charities, public authorities, policy-analysts, students, and academics with the body of knowledge necessary to understand what our institutional options are and what they entail if we are concerned about today's excessive short-termism.

Table of Contents:
PART 1: INTRODUCTORY CHAPTERS 1: Iñigo González-Ricoy and Axel Gosseries: Designing Institutions for Future Generations: An Introduction Michael K. MacKenzie: Institutional Design and Sources of Short-Termism PART 2 GENERAL TOOLS AND ISSUES 3: Nicholas Vrousalis: Intergenerational Justice: a Primer 4: Stéphane Zuber: Measuring Intergenerational Fairness 5: Anja Karnein: Can We Represent Future Generations? 6: Axel Gosseries: Generational Sovereignty PART 3 FUTURE-FOCUSED INSTITUTIONS 7: Ludvig Beckman and Fredrik Uggla: The Ombudsman for Future Generations: Legitimate and Effective? 8: Simon Caney: Political Institutions for the Future: A Five-Fold Package 9: John Broome and Duncan K. Foley: A World Climate Bank 10: Iñigo González-Ricoy: Constitutionalising Intergenerational Provisions 11: Dennis F. Thompson: Democratic Trusteeship: Institutions to Protect the Future of the Democratic Process 12: Marcel Szabo: A Common Heritage Fund for Future Generations 13: Kristian Skagen Ekeli: Electoral Design, Sub-Majority Rules and Representation for Future Generations 14: Chiara Cordelli and Rob Reich: Philanthropy and Intergenerational Justice PART 4 FUTURE-BENEFICIAL INSTITUTIONS 15: Simon Niemeyer and Julia Jennstål: The Deliberative Democratic Inclusion of Future Generations 16: Juliana Bidadanure: Youth Quotas, Diversity, and Long-Termism: Can Young People Act as Proxies for Future Generations? 17: Michael K. MacKenzie: A General-Purpose, Randomly Selected Chamber 18: Claudio López-Guerra: Pilotage Responsibility and Intergenerational Justice 19: Karl Widerquist: The People's Endowment 20: Virginie Pérotin: Democratic Firms: Assets for the Long-Term 21: Jonathan White: Archiving for the Future: the Party Constitution 22: Danielle Zwarthoed: Alumni Involvement and Long-Termist University Governance 23: Joakim Sandberg: Pension Funds, Future Generations, and Fiduciary Duty 24: Thomas Baudin and Paula Gobbi: Family Planning is Not (Necessarily) the Priority Institution for Reducing Fertility

About the Author :
Iñigo González-Ricoy is Assistant Professor of Political Philosophy at the University of Barcelona. He has been postdoctoral fellow at the University of Louvain and Pompeu Fabra University and visiting fellow at Columbia University and Goethe University in Frankfurt. His research is in democratic and constitutional theory, and has been published in the Journal of Applied Philosophy, Social Theory and Practice, and Ratio Juris. Axel Gosseries is a Maitre de recherches at the Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique, Professor at the University of Louvain, Franz Weyr Fellow of the Czech Academy of Sciences, and Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Institute for Future Studies, Stockholm. He is the author of Penser la justice entre les générations (2004) and the co-editor of Intergenerational Justice (OUP, 2009, with Lukas Meyer). He has published numerous papers in philosophy, law, and economics journals, including the Journal of Political Philosophy, Politics, Philosophy & Economics, Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review, New York University Environmental Law Journal, International Economic Review, Economics & Philosophy, and the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management.

Review :
This excellent collection of essays is devoted to the diagnosis and especially therapy of what is widely considered a flaw of current Western democracies: shorttermism- i.e., the prioritization of present over future benefits. [...] All in all, the contributions in this book are original, instructive, and exciting to read, especially given the urgency and seriousness of the subject matter. wIñigo González-Ricoy and Axel Gosseries, the editors, deserve much praise from the outset for their laudable service of putting together what is (to my knowledge) the latest and to date perhaps most comprehensive volume on institutional responses to the widespread problem of "short-termism". ... this volume does an excellent service to students and scholars of intergenerational justice alike, and one can only hope that it will find many vigilant and engaged readers. Excellent collection of essays ... the contributions in this book are original, instructive, and exciting to read, especially given the urgency and seriousness of the subject matter. The introduction and the contributions in part two equip the reader with the knowledge necessary to form a qualified opinion on the institutional changes proposed in parts three and four. Moreover, as I have argued, there is at least one package of proposed changes that promises to remedy short-termism and brings along other gains in terms of democracy and justice. Perhaps the main flaw of democratic governments is that periodical elections induce a short time horizon and make it politically risky for governments to undertake projects that take a long time to mature. Measures for climate change abatement are the paradigmatic case. Even worse, in many modern governments, the actual and expected turnover of ministers is so high that their time horizon is truncated over and above the normal shortening effect produced by the electoral cycle. This path-breaking volume is the first to address this issue in its full depth and complexity. One of the most important issues we face today is whether, to what extent, and how to address the interests of future generations. Much of the philosophical literature has considered this issue only from the perspective of moral principles. This excellent collection, with essays by leading scholars, considers the issue from the perspective of institutional design. The proposals ranging from a world climate bank to youth quotas on representative bodies to the management of pension funds -- are innovative, well considered and important. This volume will be of value not only to philosophers, but also policy analysts, economists and, indeed, anyone concerned with the quality of the lives yet to come. The short-sightedness of elected governments is easily lamented. The hard part is figuring out what to do about it. This book represents the most systematic consideration to date of the prospects for designing political institutions to induce more future-oriented policymaking. The volume combines sharp analysis of the sources of short-termism in democratic politics with careful evaluation of institutional devices that might correct democracy's biases toward the present. Blending normative theory with political, psychological, economic, and legal analysis, this book offers a wide-ranging and thought-provoking exploration of one of the deepest challenges of democratic governance.