Democracy has a blind spot so enormous that almost nobody notices it – myself included. In the decade I spent as a political scientist researching democratic governance, it simply never occurred to me that we systematically disenfranchise future generations in the same way that women and slaves have been disenfranchised in the past. Yet that is the reality.
They are given no rights, nor (in the vast majority of countries) are there public bodies to represent their interests or potential views on decisions that will undoubtedly affect their lives, from policies to confront the climate crisis and the regulation of artificial intelligence to planning for the next pandemic.
The disturbing truth is that we have colonised the future. Especially in wealthy nations, we treat it is a dumping ground for ecological degradation, technological risk and nuclear waste – as if there is nobody there. And there is little that the unborn citizens of tomorrow can do about it. They cannot throw themselves in front of the King’s horse like a Suffragette, block an Alabama bridge like a civil rights protestor, or go on a Salt March to defy their colonial oppressors like Mahatma Gandhi.
