Present development is unsustainable in important respects for example in relation to some of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Climate change, biological diversity and pollution of soil and water are examples. Also the health of populations of human beings are threatened and affected.
Can a strengthened democracy contribute to progress in relation to the SDGs? In the present chapter it is argued that issues of values, ethics and ideology, and even justice, need to be discussed more openly. One observation is that the conceptual framework and discipline of economics plays a crucial role in public dialogue about development issues and that there is a monopoly position for neoclassical theory with its specific ideological content in university departments of economics.
A more pluralist eonomics, that is an economics compatible with democracy, where institutional eological economics is one among alternatives, would represent an important step forward in strengthening democracy and hopefully improvinng performance in relation to the 17 SDGs.
Den aktuella handboken "Research Handbook on Democracy and Development" publiceras av Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham, UK i mars 2021