Institutions for the long run: taking future generations seriously in government

Abstract

This article sets out the case for taking future generations seriously through our political institutions. We make three central claims. First, future people matter, and political institutions ought to reflect this. We make this case by appealing to the importance of broad political enfranchisement, and then to the more general moral significance of future people. Second, our political institutions do not yet take the interests of future generations sufficiently seriously across a range of issues, especially relating to managing risks—and considerations from economics and psychology explain why she should expect this to be the case. Third, institutional reform toward representing future people is both promising and feasible. To this end, we describe four kinds of reform which we hope will broaden the discussion. Throughout, we draw on work by Tyler John.