|
Protecting people - and the emergence of protective
institutions for assets
When institutions such as the law, and the agencies supporting the law, become
more inclusive, more people are given protection, voice, and support. And when
institutions are more inclusive-listening to and supporting more people-a
broader range of assets can thrive (boxes
3.4, 3.8,
3.9, and 3.10
illuminate different aspects of this). The reason is that assets need guardians
and spokespersons. Assets therefore may fail to be served if the people who
benefit from these assets are not well served by-or represented
in-institutions. For private assets, more inclusive institutions facilitate
development and asset accumulation as more people feel safe in their homes and
find promising outlets for their savings. For communal and natural assets
(roads, water, fish, or forests), more inclusive institutions deepen the
support for their provision, so that their quality and quantity can rise.
Consider what happened in Cubatão, Brazil, where inclusiveness in the form of
democratization and the end of media censorship shifted the balance toward
civil society and a cleaner environment (box
6.8). In many countries, social movements pressing for democratization
and environmental improvements have reinforced each other (box
3.9).
Box 3.9
Mutual reinforcement: environmental movements and democracy
In many places environmental movements arose in the 1980s in the midst of
broader social movements for democratization. Democratization and
environmentalism have developed together but in diverse ways. In the Republic
of Korea social movements for democratization, labor, and environmental
protection joined forces in opposition to authoritarian rule in the 1980s. In
Taiwan (China) the environmental and prodemocracy movements were the two
strongest social mobilizations. An estimated 582 environmental protests
occurred there between 1983 and 1988-one-fifth of public protests during this
period. In Brazil disparate environmental organizations that had kept a low
profile during military rule were animated and united when they helped draft
the environmental chapter of the new national constitution during 1985-88. In
the former Soviet Union, civic environmental organizations flourished in the
early years, were crushed under Stalin, resurfaced in limited form during the
political liberalization of the 1950s, and exploded as a central component of
mass movements for democratization in the late 1980s.
Source: Mirovitskaya
(1998); Anbarasan
and Yul (2001); Lee
and others (1999);
Hochstetler (1997)
|
How can protective institutions be formed to give dispersed interests effective
channels? In a wide range of cases, society relies on guardians, or custodians,
to look over something of value. An example is when participatory approaches in
projects ask people to speak their mind. The presumption behind this empowering
people's voice is not only that people have a right to speak on their own
behalf. It is also that city people, for example, can benefit from hearing from
people in more remote areas about what goes on in the forest, about the effects
of cutting trees or damming rivers.
For people to be functional guardians, they must be well-endowed and feel safe.
As an illustration, all societies rely on parents to protect and nurture
children. It happens that this protection fails-as when children are sold into
slavery or prostitution. This is not because parents are not their
guardians-they are-but because of the family's poverty and despair.
This need to have well-endowed guardians places broad-based development and
poverty reduction at the heart of concerns for environmental and other communal
assets. More inclusive access to assets (human capital, a piece of land, or a
plot for housing) can change people's perspectives, allowing them to be more
forward looking and engaged in their communities. When people have assets-and
thus a stake in the future and in the community-it is also easier to build
support for institutions, public goods, and publicly provided goods such as
rule of law, watershed management, and schooling.
|
