It’s time for long-termism: improving intergenerational policymaking in today’s democracies

Democratic governments around the world seem to be stuck in a “tyranny of the present” that is hard to escape, due to short-term pressures like electoral cycles, lobbying powers of vested interests and short-term voters’ preferences. Such pressures impede timely governmental action to address long-term problems, with causes and effects that span across human generations. This article aims to unpack how governments can more adequately address long-term problems by taking future generations into account when developing policies in the present. Through a narrative review, this article identifies four guiding questions that are examined by integrating insights from different scientific literatures: who – which generations and what futures – to include; what interests to protect while also leaving options open for future generations; when to incorporate the future in policymaking, through distant policy objectives or continuously addressing future generations’ needs; how to consider interests of future generations, by using institutional guardians or embracing democratic innovations like mini-publics. Our review results in a novel framework for inter-generational policymaking that combines (1) imagination, through the use of futuring in policymaking; (2) institutional mechanisms to ensure sustained attention for the long term; (3) interaction through the facilitation of policy dialogue beyond the legislature.