ABSTRACT
Globalization socializes production and consumption on a global scale but concentrates both economic wealth and political decision-making power in the hands of a small managerial class of global elites. The failure of the dominant development paradigm to promote the goals of ecological sustainability, social justice, and human well-being can be accounted for in part by the inherent diffi culties of attempting to manage the global economy on the basis of highly centralized forms of decision-making and hierarchical social structures, given the complexity of social and ecological relationships that globalization necessitates. The bioregional model of participatory politics is one that expands the scope of moral concern beyond self to include both community and environment. It thus aims at a holistic view of society while simultaneously debureaucratizing government and decentralizing political power.
