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Land, ecology, and democracy: A twenty-first century view

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 May 2016

Julianne Lutz Newton ,
Eric T. Freyfogle  and
William C. Sullivan
Julianne Lutz Newton
Affiliation:
The Environmental Council University of Illinois 311 West University Avenue #401 Champaign, Illinois 61820 jnewton@uiuc.edu
Eric T. Freyfogle
Affiliation:
University of Illinois College of Law 504 East Pennsylvania Avenue Champaign, Illinois 61820 efreyfog@uiuc.law.edu
William C. Sullivan
Affiliation:
The Environmental Council University of Illinois 1101 West Peabody #390 Urbana, Illinois 61801 wcsulliv@uiuc.edu
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Abstract

Land is necessary for human flourishing, and its use remains a compelling concern for every society, even those wherein industrialization has sharply diminished people's awareness of land. Here, we consider land's influence on political thinking, particularly thinking about democratic governance, and ask if this influence might be made more beneficial by the application of lessons drawn from ecological research. We identify five such lessons and apply them in six ways to the institution of private-property rights in nature — the main legal institution that allocates and perpetuates power over land — and to modern assumptions about liberal individualism and rights to health. We conclude that people can live well on land, promoting both human and land health, only in governmental forms engaging more citizens more deliberatively than now typical even in democracies. Implications for political institutions and human welfare are discussed under conditions of globalizing interdependence.

Type
View Point
Information
Politics and the Life Sciences , Volume 25 , Issue 1-2 , March 2006 , pp. 42 - 56
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Politics and the Life Sciences 

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