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extensive debate since the environmental crises of the early 1970s.
3
This
debate has produced radical proposals under which existing structures
for governance would be wholly or partly dismantled and new structures
put in their place which, it is argued, would better provide for sustain-
able living and ecological protection than current arrangements. It
has also generated more-moderate proposals for achieving these ends
through the reform of existing structures and institutions. However, it is
to the devolutionary arguments that I turn
rst as understanding why
they are not adequate for tackling the causes of ecological degradation
helps in designing a system of governance that would be adequate for
this purpose.
Arguments for the deconstruction or reconstruction of governance to
achieve ecological ends have been presented on a number of different
grounds. The more anarchistically inclined amongst green political
theorists have argued that the only way to stave off environmental
catastrophe is to devolve authority completely to regional units whose
extent would, as far as possible, be coterminous with those of ecosystems,
and whose main objective in governance would be to control activities
conducted within them so that these are capable of sustaining the
region
s population, but without damaging the functionality of ecosys-
tems.
4
For example, bioregionalists have argued that the ideal unit of
governance would be de
'
'
'
boundaries,
and that those subject to the governance regime would live only on what
each unit
ned by reference to
bioregional
s territories are able to provide.
5
A less-dramatic response to environmental concerns, but one which
would also require signi
'
cant change in political structures, is that author-
ity to regulate the exploitation of ecosystems and the natural resources
they contain should be delegated to bodies typically comprised of local and
regional actors, agencies with relevant responsibilities, and representatives
of other interested parties who, collectively, would form decision-making
3
L. J. Lundqvist, Sweden and Ecological Governance (Manchester: Manchester University
Press,2004),p.2;A.Dobson,Green Political Thought, 4th edn (London: Routledge,
2007), pp. 62
-
4.
4
Lundqvist,
,p.95;
G. Smith, Deliberative Democracy and the Environment (London: Routledge, 2003),
p. 78; A. Dobson,
'
Ecological Governance
'
,pp.7
-
8; Dobson,
'
Green Political Thought
'
'
Trajectories of Green Political Theory
'
(2009) 8 Contemporary
Political Theory, 321.
5
Dobson,
'
Green Political Thought
'
, p. 91; M. V. McGinnis,
'
A Rehearsal to Bioregionalism
'
in
M. V. McGinnis (ed.) Bioregionalism (London: Routledge, 1999), pp. 1
-
9.
