Earth Democracy

Core principles

[[vandana-shiva|Vandana Shiva]]‘s articulation:

1. All species and all peoples have intrinsic worth — not just instrumental value
2. The Earth-family — the Earth is a community of life, not a collection of resources
3. Democracy of all life — political participation includes the more-than-human community
4. Living democracy and living economies — economic value flows from living systems
5. [[commons|The commons]] — water, seeds, biodiversity, knowledge must be reclaimed
6. The right to food — and the [[food-sovereignty|food sovereignty]] that produces it
7. Cultures of peace — peace with the Earth and within human community
8. Justice — across ecological and human dimensions
9. Sustainability — life persisting across generations
10. Pluralism — many ways of being human in relation to Earth

Shiva develops these across decades of writing (Earth Democracy, 2005; subsequent books and essays).

Practical articulation

Earth Democracy is not abstract philosophy; it is articulated through:

• Seed sovereignty — see [[seed-saving]], [[navdanya]]; seeds as commons, not corporate property
• [[food-sovereignty|Food sovereignty]] — communities controlling their own food systems
• Water as commons — opposing water privatization, supporting community water management
• Biodiversity protection — Indigenous-and-traditional crop varieties, wild biodiversity
• Knowledge as commons — opposing patents on traditional knowledge, supporting open knowledge
• Living-economy alternatives — small-scale, ecological, regenerative, locally-rooted

Critique of dominant framework

Shiva’s Earth Democracy critiques:

• Capitalist enclosure — privatization of commons (water, seeds, knowledge, land)
• Corporate globalization — concentration of power in transnational corporations
• Reductionist science — separation of human from non-human, of single-discipline from holistic
• Patriarchal structures — particularly affecting women’s agricultural and ecological knowledge
• Colonial relationships — continuing through trade, intellectual property, agricultural practice

Lineage and influence

Earth Democracy draws on:

• Indian traditional philosophy — particularly Gandhian principles of sarvodaya (welfare of all)
• Indian Indigenous and traditional ecological knowledge
• Western ecological thought — [[aldo-leopold|Aldo Leopold]], [[deep-ecology|deep ecology]], eco-feminism
• [[liberation-theology|Liberation theology]] and similar movements
• Global South Indigenous-and-traditional movements

Why this matters

Earth Democracy is among the most-developed political-philosophical frameworks for ecological civilization that originates in Global South Indigenous-and-traditional perspectives rather than Western environmental thought. It centers the rights of all beings, [[commons|the commons]], [[food-sovereignty|food sovereignty]], and Indigenous knowledge as foundational rather than peripheral.

For 0mn1.one’s framing of “all forms of life” and worldwide abundance, Earth Democracy is foundational political-philosophical infrastructure.

See also

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• Shares approach with: [[rights-of-nature]] · [[indigenous-foodways]]
• Pioneer of: [[vandana-shiva]]

Sources

• Earth Democracy: Justice, Sustainability, and Peace, [[vandana-shiva|Vandana Shiva]] (South End Press, 2005)
• Soil Not Oil, [[vandana-shiva|Vandana Shiva]] (2008)
• Who Really Feeds the World?, [[vandana-shiva|Vandana Shiva]] (2016)
• Multiple [[vandana-shiva|Vandana Shiva]] published works

Rooted in life.