Sustaining Liberal Democracy

Assuming that liberalism, liberal democracy and the free market are here to stay, this book asks how sustainability can be interpreted in ways that respect liberal democratic values and institutions. Among the problems addressed are the compatibility of liberal proceduralism with substansive “green” ideals, the existence and potential of eco-friendly principles and ideas in classical liberal political theory, the role of rights and duties and of democracy and deliberation, and the “greening” potential of modern environmental focused practices in liberal democracies.

Author Biography

MARCEL WISSENBURG is Lecturer in Political Theory and Philosophy of the Policy Sciences at the University of Nijmegen. He is editor of Civic Politics and Civil Society (1995) and European Discourses on Environmental Policy (with G.Orhan and U.Collier, 1999), and the author of Green Liberalism: the Free and the Green Society (1998) and Imperfection and Impartiality: A Liberal Theory of Social Justice (1999). – JOHN BARRY is Lecturer in the School of Politics, International Relations and the Environment at Keele University. His publications include Rethinking Green Politics: Nature, Virtue and Progress (1999) and Environment and Social Theory (1999).