7 Globalization and Sustainability

CHAPTER 7

Globalization and Sustainability

From the point of globalization no other issue is as important as sustainability. The issue of sustainability has drawn the attention of people in the world that we share the globe despite the differences in terms of politics, economics, and ideologies. As a result, the nations of the world need to cooperate to maintain sustainability for the survival of the species.

The chapter analyzes the meaning of sustainability, the evolution of its concept, and the consequences. It then proceeds to investigate the challenges of sustainability in a globalized world, focusing on planning, missions, institutional capacity, the role of leadership, international cooperation, and environmental justice. Finally, the chapter makes a statistical analysis of globalization with environmental performance.

The field of public administration has been emphasizing the values of efficiency, performance, social equity, diversity, and ethics. In the light of the global concern of protecting the environment, sustainability has now become one of the core values of public administration. Concerns over the declining state of the environment have been emphasized by many recent events, the climate agreement signed in Paris and the uproar over the extent of water contamination in Flint, Michigan, in the United States. As Sonnenfeld and Mol (2002) have reflected, environmental politics is changing drastically not only in developed countries but also around the world at different levels of government. These changes can be understood from the

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point of globalization, which weakens state sovereignty by increasing the power of economic interests and civil society (Sonnenfeld and Mol 2002).

The most important job of government is to provide public services for its citizens’ welfare. Within this context, sustainability is vitally related to the welfare of the people. The quality of life is dependent on the two primary elements of life: clean air and water. Fiorino (2010) calls for sustainability to become a focus of public administration. In his study, he focused on sustainability from the point of the environmental, economic, and social/political systems. John Robinson and Jon Tinker (1997, p. 74) view the economy, environment, and human society as “three interacting, interconnected, and overlapping ‘prime’ systems.” This chapter emphasizes sustainability from the point of environmental protection. However, societal and political actions are also crucial for the achievement of environmental protection. The traditional role of public administration is to implement public policies, in which politicians have the role of campaigning and framing. Without the cooperation of public servants, it will be impossible to achieve the goals of sustainability.

Pope Francis has also emphasized the importance of sustainability, focusing on the issue of environmental justice. To this end, he assembled 60 city mayors at the Vatican. In his address to this gathering, he remarked that the ecosystem had been undermined by the rich who had taken advantage of the world’s resources through the exploitation of gas and oil. He urged the compensation of the poor for the degradation of the environment since they have been the main victims.

Sustainability plays a crucial part in any discussion about public administration because it is government which is responsible for policy making and implementation. Uchem and Erunke (2013) assert that public administration promotes the use of human cooperative action to solve practical problems, which influence government performance. The goal of public administration, therefore, is to study all actions relating to the formulation, implementation, and evaluation of policy to come up with efficient and effective use of money, materials and men in the public domain (Uchem and Erunke 2013).

Nijaki (2015) suggests that sustainability has been the subject of discussion in public administration literature, emphasizing the necessity of balancing the goals and values around the “three Es” of economic growth, environmental protection and equity in political and social systems. By contrast, Leuenberger (2006) has suggested that the environment should be regarded as one of the tenets of public administration. Leuenberger