Our democracies repeatedly fail to safeguard the future. From pensions
to pandemics, health and social care through to climate, biodiversity
and emerging technologies, democracies have been unable to deliver
robust policies for the long term.
In this book, Graham Smith asks why. Exploring the drivers of
short-termism, he considers ways of reshaping legislatures and
constitutions and proposes strengthening independent offices whose
overarching goals do not change at every election. More radically, Smith
argues that forms of participatory and deliberative politics offer the
most effective democratic response to the current political myopia, as
well as a powerful means of protecting the interests of generations to
come.