Democratic Norms of Earth System Governance

An analysis of the normative prerequisites for addressing the challenges of democratic earth system governance in the Anthropocene.

Deliberative democracy is well-suited to the challenges of global environmental governance in the Anthropocene, but only to the extent that five normative prerequisites are successfully institutionalized. This book analyses them and is ideal for those in global environmental politics, earth system governance, and international environmental policy.Deliberative democracy is well-suited to the challenges of governing in the Anthropocene. But deliberative democratic practices are only suited to these challenges to the extent that five prerequisites - empoweredness, embeddedness, experimentality, equivocality, and equitableness - are successfully institutionalized. Governance must be: created by those it addresses, applicable equally to all, capable of learning from (and adapting to) experience, rationally grounded, and internalized by those who adopt and experience it. This book analyzes these five major normative principles, pairing each with one of the Earth System Governance Project's analytical problems to provide an in-depth discussion of the minimal conditions for environmental governance that can be truly sustainable. It is ideal for scholars and graduate students in global environmental politics, earth system governance, and international environmental policy. This is one of a series of publications associated with the Earth System Governance Project. For more publications, see www.cambridge.org/earth-system-governance.