Green political thoughton how a ‘good person’ should behave in the ‘good (green) society’, as illus-
trated by the centrality of the three remaining pillars to green politics. First,
green party organisations are typically modelled on participatory democ-
racy. The green state would be agrassroots democracy;indeed,participatory
democracy would extend beyond political institutions into the economic
arena, where the basic form of collective work organisation would be the
worker co-operative or commune. Secondly, green politics emphasisessocial
justice.Aprinciple of intragenerational equity regards distributional equity,
particularly between the rich North and the poor South but also within each
country, as a prerequisite of sustainability. A principle of intergenerational
justice requires justice towards unborn future generations (see Box3.4). The
need to protect biodiversity leads greens to favour diversity in human rela-
tions, specifically opposing all forms of discrimination based on race, gen-
der, sexual orientation or age. Thirdly, greens espousenon-violence,opposing
international violence (war, armies, nuclear weapons), and are committed
to non-violent civil protest.
Thus greens have a broad and radical vision of what a sustainable society
might look like. Inevitably, this programme has attracted extensive criticism.
Fewpeople would deny that the economic and social prescriptions outlined
here would help reduce environmental destruction, but many sympathisers
question whether such wholesale reform of economic activity and individual
lifestyles is really necessary or desirable, let alone feasible. Unease about
the radical prescriptions proposed by many greens has contributed to the
popularity ofsustainable development(see Chapter8), which outlines an alter-
native policy paradigm based on the reform of the existing capitalist system,
rather than the more fundamental transformation of society outlined above.
However, this chapter is concerned with the content and coherence of
ecologism as a radical and distinct green ideology. This section has shown
that, although sustainability is the central imperative of ecologism, greens
have yoked it to a more general understanding of what a good society and a
good person will be like. This begs a fundamental question: does a commit-
ment to sustainabilitynecessarilyimply a commitment to the principles of
participatory democracy, social justice, non-violence and decentralisation –
or is the relationship merely contingent?
Critical question 2
Is the radical green vision of the sustainable society an unattainable utopia?
◗ Does sustainability require specific political arrangements?
The primacy of the ecological imperative is the driving feature of green ide-
ology. If the objective is to save the planet, does it matter how we do it?
Suppose the ‘survivalist’ prescription of an authoritarian, centralised and
inequitable society were the most effective means of achieving sustainability.