The Sustainable State: The Future of Government, Economy and Society by Chandran Nair (review)

In its synopsis, this book is pitched as a “radical approach to governance for sustainable development”, and that is exactly what it is. Chandran Nair totally goes against the grain to point out what has led to the planet’s current state of poverty, environmental degradation and disconnect with nature, then proceeds to put forward an outrageously different approach to local and global governance to correct the imbalances. And, he is far from wrong.

Nair opens the book with a clear breakdown of how the term “sustainable development” has been watered down to “feel good slogans” that only emphasize being “environmentally friendly or even just being environmentally conscious” to the point where large organizations focus only on pollution, for example, instead of acting to ensure that resources are used in a way that allows them to replenish themselves, and remain indefinitely available. He also makes a clear distinction between the ability of developed nations to make sweeping environmental declarations and develop “green” technologies to further exploit resources to meet their comfort levels—while across the dark line, developing nations struggle to lift citizens out of poverty while trying to keep to benchmarks set by Western-dominated international organizations.

He pinpoints the crux of the problem to the overreliance on the free market economy, a distaste for a “strong state”, overconsumption, and the inappropriate dream of a Western definition of “development” that is both unachievable and unsustainable for the developing world. Nair correctly points out that there are two sustainability challenges in the world today; while richer countries need only to focus on resource efficiency, poorer countries need to also “improve the lives of its poor majority” even as they mark out a path to a prosperous yet sustainable lifestyle. He goes on to emphasize that even the definition of “prosperous” is dubious; and questions how the never-ending, exhausting pursuit for more can supersede the satisfaction of the quality comforts of a simple life in touch with nature, healthy unprocessed foods and time with family.

There is a tangible effort to decolonize sustainability throughout the book. Nair opines that the reason why there are so few alternatives to solutions for environmental calamities and climate change is Western orthodoxy in science and environmental schools of thought. The United Nations, for example, in deriving the Sustainable Development Goals, is a largely Western-led entity that makes decisions based on Western knowledge frameworks and the overarching goal of high resource consumption to attain Western standards of living.

The free market economy, according to Nair, functions on the premise that increasingly scarce resources will raise prices, which will then lead to an equilibrium between supply and demand, subsequently leading to less resource-intensive economies as businesses work to find more resource-efficient methods of production. He debunks this by establishing why this process is not sustainable. Amongst the factors are unaccounted external costs incurred in the production of goods and services that come about because every economic action places an invisible cost on someone else. He gives the example of how goods (especially purchased through e-commerce deals) have become increasingly cheaper, leading to even more consumption. However, these cheaper prices come at the cost of lower wages, poor working conditions and too easy access to credit.

A free and unregulated market is also inherently unsustainable because of the mismatch between “private interest to consume as much as possible and the collective interest to sustainably manage common shared resources”. The tragedy of the commons can clearly be seen in the near collapse of global fisheries and widespread deforestation. He also points out that yet another reason for free market failure is the vast imbalance of power between those who overconsume and those who can barely afford to consume. All economic negotiations thus inevitably lean towards those who can afford to consume and make decisions, while the “powerless” remain at the voiceless, receiving end of the decision-making process.

Nair’s solution then...