ABSTRACT
This collection originated in a research project based in Australia which involved a group of scholars meeting and corresponding over a two-year period. This explains why the collection has an Australian flavour, and why there is a certain amount of ‘conversation’ and cross-referencing amongst the pieces. The focus of our discussion was the question whether liberal democracies are, even in principle, capable of responding adequately to the environmental challenge in its regional and global dimensions: are they capable of sustaining the degree of environmental reform demanded by the ecological crisis? If not, is there any form of democracy better equipped to meet this challenge, or is there ultimately just an irreconcilable tension between the ideals of democracy and contemporary environmental imperatives? Most of the members of the research group agreed that democracy in some form was indeed our best hope for true environmental sustainability. What we disagreed upon was which form of democracy could best deliver environmental reform and whether the degree of reform it could be expected to deliver would be enough.
