Enhancing the Legitimacy of Offices for Future Generations

The Case for Public Participation

Bibliographic Data

ID6345378
AuthorsGraham Smith (0000-0002-8537-4241, University of Westminster, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume68
Issue4
Pages996-1013
Publication date2020-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePolitical Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0032-3217 • E-ISSN: 1467-9248
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0032321719885100
OpenAlexW2989982541
LanguageEN
Citations received25
References cited33

Independent offices for future generations are rare among institutional designs that aim to ameliorate short-termism in democracies. Drawing on the experience of offices for future generations in Israel, Hungary, and Wales, the article argues that such institutions face at least three challenges to their legitimacy: first, the capacity of an unelected agency to constrain government and law-making; second, the ability of a single office to adequately represent the plurality of interests within and across future generations; and third, their political fragility and vulnerability. The article develops the counterintuitive argument that offices for future generations can enhance their democratic legitimacy through embedding systematic public participation in their activities, in particular through the institutionalization of deliberative mini-publics

Agency (philosophy · Argument (complex analysis · Counterintuitive · Deliberative democracy · Democracy · Democratic legitimacy · Government (linguistics · Institutionalisation · Law and economics · Legitimacy · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Publics · Social science · Sociology · Vulnerability (computing · Law · Public Administration · Public Policy and Administration Research

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