Public Goods, Civil Society and Sustainability

This paper proposes a “public goods” approach to the development of “civil society” as a foundation for building a sustainable environment. Economists define “public goods” as goods that cannot be delivered through traditional marketplace mechanisms, such as fire protection and education. Civil Society organizations also can be viewed as public goods. A central feature of sustainable liberal democracies is the existence of intermediary civil society collective organizations. These organizational units are supported by macro-level governmental institutions under the rationale of providing citizens benefits that cannot be provided by the market or directly by the state. This approach provides an alternative to zero-sum conflicts and leads to compromise solutions that will gain taxpayer support. Research findings from a variety of places provide historical illustrations of the effectiveness of a public goods approach include: (1) the U. S. TVA organizational design during the New Deal and the contemporary cross-party appeal of criminal justice reform; (2) the formation of the European Coal and Steel Community - the forerunner of the European Union – which provides one-third of its budget for local-level sustainability projects; and (3) the successful vertical integration of smallholder cooperatives in East Africa that encourages sustainable family, community, and national development.