Democracy, markets and sustainable development: the European Union as an example

Abstract:

Development issues are discussed in specific ways in the European Union and in various local, regional and international arenas. For some actors, economic growth in GDP terms and international (or inter-regional) competitiveness still appears as the main vision; others refer to sustainable development (SD) as their ideological orientation. However, SD is ambiguous and the interpretation of SD differs from business as usual through ecological modernization to more radical ideas of progress.

If we wish to take SD seriously as a multidimensional and ethical development concept, then research efforts and debate have to include what can be described as protected zones in the development dialogue. These refer to more fundamental issues about theory of science, paradigms in economics, ideological orientations and institutional arrangements that too often have been taken for granted rather than being openly discussed in terms of alternatives. It is believed that our possibilities of approaching an SD path will improve considerably if we systematically introduce the mentioned areas into our dialogue about the future.