Green political thoughteach was reasonably similar. The existence of significant disparities in mate-
rial wealth might encourage poorer communities to seek economic parity
with their neighbours.
Overall, there are good reasons for regarding social justice as a core green
principle. Admittedly, the relationship between social justice and sustain-
ability is complex and uncertain. Many environmental measures will have
anegative impact on social justice; it is therefore incumbent on govern-
ments to ensure that disadvantaged groups are compensated in other ways.
Nevertheless, on balance, greater equality should benefit sustainability both
byalleviating poverty and by facilitating democratisation and decentral-
isation. Underpinning both arguments is the powerful pragmatic politi-
cal imperative: ‘no justice, no cooperation; no cooperation, no solution’
(Connelly and Smith 2003 :31). This mantra of poor Southern nations has
catapulted equity issues to the forefront of international environmental
diplomacy (see Chapter9). Similarly, equity considerations are critical in
persuading individual citizens to support sustainable policies and become
ecological citizens. In short, the pursuit of social justice is a core green
principle because it should ease the transition to a sustainable society.
It has been argued in the preceding sections that participatory democracy,
decentralisation and social justice (or reformed versions of these concepts)
can be regarded as essential components of a sustainable society (and of
themeans of getting there), although the case for non-violence seems less
persuasive. The discussion has also brought out the importance ofecological
citizenshipas a critical ingredient of a green theory of agency. This concept
of ecological (or green or environmental) citizenship has attracted growing
interest amongst green theorists (Barry 1996 , 1999a;Christoff1996a; Dobson
2003 ; Dobson and S ́aiz 2005 ; Dobson and Bell 2006 ). Whichever theoretical
approach is adopted (see Box3.9), there is consensus over the need for active
ecological citizenship because of the recognition that the transition to a
sustainable society requires more than institutional restructuring: it also
needs a transformation in the beliefs, attitudes and behaviour of individu-
als. Greens recognise that the radical changes necessary for sustainability
are only possible if undertaken willingly by individual citizens. As Barry
puts it, ‘Citizenship... emphasizes the duty of citizens to take responsi-
bility for their actions and choices – the obligation to ‘‘do one’s bit” in the
collective enterprise of achieving sustainability’ (1999a:231). Ecological cit-
izenship needs to be nurtured at the level of the (reformed) state, through
the deliberative processes engendered by democratisation, decentralisation
and egalitarianism, but its effect would spill over from the political sphere
into the realms of economic and social activity. This belief that human
nature can be changed and preferences transformed – making people less
individualistic and materialistic – is an important defining characteristic
of ecologism, which, as the following section shows, shapes its relationship
with other ideologies. Indeed, the above discussion shows how ecologism has