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What can I hope for (from politics)? 1121 We have to choose; that is for certain. Economic globalism and political centralisation are the realities of our age, but so too is the fact that in Western civilisation freedom is considered the fundamental value in politics and, in fact, there still remains in people a vague desire for self-determination and control over the means of power. Ihese two realities are irreconcilable. We choose the latter without hesitation, because there is no case in world history where the concentration of power did not lead to unchecked violence and the adherents of violent rule did not, sooner or later, sacrifice their principles in the interest of keeping power, exactly as described by Plato in the eighth book of the Republic. It has also repeatedly been proven true that the other extreme, the unchecked competition of the equally free, itself leads to the tyranny of the stronger competitors, which the weak and vulnerable not only endure but even eventually demand — here, too, Plato was right. Therefore, ecological politics can be realised only if it can free itself from the unprecedented concentration of material and intellectual power that characterises our age and if its decisions are made with the competent participation of those concerned, at a transparent, accessible local level, in communities whose members do not have to fear becoming victims to violence. Participation, self-determination and decentralisation — behold, the fundamental principles of green democracy. Its adherents hold that the culture of solidarity and reasonable disagreement can develop anywhere where interdependence makes those concerned interested in dialogue. ‘The sceptics hold the reverse: until there is no dialogue between them, they are not open to trusting and the lack of trust renders dialogue impossible. Formal logic supports them: Achilles cannot reach the tortoise. Yet formal logic does not reckon with the constant interaction of changes occurring in parallel, which decidedly improve the chances of Achilles and reasonable dialogue. Communities’ self-determination can be achieved, an institutional system of participative decision-making can be established and the experience of successful cooperation can create communities of solidarity. 4. The question of global justice “Justice” has replaced the successfully privatised “common good” at the centre of modern political thought. For a long time, the citizens of liberal democracies did not debate their goals but rather who was owed
