Our democracies repeatedly fail to safeguard the future. From pensions to pandemics health and
social care through to climate biodiversity and emerging technologies democracies have been
unable to deliver robust policies for the long term. In this book Graham Smith asks why.
Exploring the drivers of short-termism he considers ways of reshaping legislatures and
constitutions and proposes strengthening independent offices whose overarching goals do not
change at every election. More radically Smith argues that forms of participatory and
deliberative politics offer the most effective democratic response to the current political
myopia as well as a powerful means of protecting the interests of generations to come.
