Neoclassical Approach To Sustainable Development Essay

1. Describe the most important conceptual foundations of weak sustainability. The position of weak sustainability holds that resource depletion and environmental degradation will not constrain human consumption possibilities in the future. What is the basis for this optimism? Weak sustainability is defined as the sustainability of a society that can utilize manufactured and human capital instead of natural capital.

Classical economics emphasises the fact free markets lead to an efficient outcome and are self-regulating. In macroeconomics, classical economics assumes the long run aggregate supply curve is inelastic; therefore any deviation from full employment will only be temporary. The Classical model stresses the importance of limiting government intervention and striving to keep markets free of potential barriers to their efficient operation. Keynesians argue that the economy can be below full capacity for a considerable time due to imperfect markets. Keynesians place a greater role for expansionary fiscal policy (government intervention) to overcome recession.

In Deep Economy by Bill McKibben, there is a reigning theme of “more” not being equal to “better.” For McKibben, society needs to focus on efficiency rather than growth. By this, McKibben is referring to the societal obsession of “more” and “better” being one-and-the same. However, for McKibben, the reality is that a growth centric society is antiquated and dangerous for the environment. Instead, McKibben advocates for civilization to revert to a one focused on the close-knit community in order to promote a sustainable economy. For McKibben, its seems as though the easiest method to focus on sustainability rather than just efficiency is the production of food.

These are some for the barriers and competitiveness issues which environmental regulation, taxes and policies encounter with the respective stakeholders during policy making and during policy implementation. Therefore, a balanced approach has to be achieved; and not to focus on avoiding environment damage only, while destroying industries and forgoing the opportunity of economic growth which creates tax base for government’s revenues. The policy or package will also have to guarantee that the polluter is charged or taxed accordingly and not the affected society at large to be bore the environmental damaging costs. According to Green Fiscal Commission 2009, there are two criteria’s which can be used to assess the effectiveness of environment taxes. The first criterion directly attempts to trace the contribution of the tax to the monitored pollution reduction, whilst the second criterion endeavors to establish incentives for the taxpayer to change their behavior in a way more favorable to the environment often by adopting abatement measures or by saving on scarce

The first model, the exponential growth model, merely can only predict the future population. However, this is a very unrealistic model, as there environmental factors that may affect the population to grow exponentially. This can be seen in the general equation, as the variable K, which represents the carrying capacity, is not included. Therefore, the second model, logistic growth model, is more realistic, as it can be applied to real life situations for its considerations made on the carrying capacity of an environment. The [1 - (P(t))/K] included in the general equation shows how the logistic model recognizes that the environment has a limit to the amount of resources that can support a population.

Each of these pillars depends on each other in some way in order to operate. Priority is mainly directed towards economic performance and development as opposed to the remaining important pillars. Economic development is dependent on the society and environment in order to market products and to obtain raw materials, while society is dependent on the environment solely for survival (Giddings, Hopwood and O’Brien, 2002). Sustainable development aims to achieve a balance between the three pillars of sustainability, ensuring that all sectors become one entity. The disadvantage associated with this model is that each pillar is given individual recognition and not recognized as a combined entity (Giddings, Hopwood and O’Brien, 2002).

The Marxist position is that the mode of production does in fact determine the superstructure of political relations. Therefore, it is argued, history can be understood as of product of dialectical process- the contradiction between the evolving techniques of production and the resistant sociopolitical system. As for the concept of “national interest,” the national interest of a given nation-state is, of course, what its political and economic elite determines it to be” .The dominant idea of contemporary bourgeois thinking is that increasing international integration of economic activity, or “globalization” will lead to prosperity and peace for all. But globalization is not a concept that helps us understand the world around us. It is an ideological construct used to trumpet capital victory- to conceal the crisis ridden nature of the system and its

The philosophy of critical theory has been involved in analyzing the dynamics of power and assessing the naturalness of Western culture, and therefore provided literature that has attempted to explain the dynamics behind the consolidation of capitalism. Bruno Latour focused on the naturalness that the notion of capitalism has attained through the discipline of economics, making it appear as a natural self-governing phenomenon. Furthermore, this naturalness obscures the negative and unfair effects of the system, as we find ourselves unable to effectively comprehend its dynamics. This can be viewed in both a national-, and an international respect. Immanuel Wallerstein has looked at the history of the global proliferation of capitalism, subdividing states into core-, peripheral- and semi-peripheral states areas.

Whether or not unrestricted trade is worth going to war over cannot be said. It can be said and seen, however, how important free trade is. Only by providing information of the market to the public and by allowing trade to happen naturally, can an economy truly flourish. Through the use of “laissez-faire”, as popularised by economists such as Adam Smith, often considered the founding father of free trade and capitalism in the modern world. It is on this basis that the foundations of economic theory are based

On one way the paragraph makes sense and the second way the paragraph does not. Mostly the debate depended on the definition of value (and its connection to long period market period prices) because there were different definitions of the term. According to Bentham and Dugald Stewart, utility was used as “a portmanteau term to cover all the wants and desires” (7). Ricardo states that “utility was an absolutely essential precondition, but could not be a measure of value in exchange” (8), which were determined either by the scarcity or by the quantity of labor required to obtain commodities. The second way the paragraph read made it sound incoherent because utility cannot be the measure of value.