Democracy and Sustainable Development: relationship in crisis?

In this article, we analyze the de-politization of socioecological problems, via processes of privatization of spaces (reserves or concessions) or managerial administration of resources. We start by criticizing Garret Hardin’s lifeboat ethics as an example of justification of privatizing policies, and point out how this type of measures can be found in recommendations made in the Brundtland Report, the most important antecedent of the 2030 Agenda, which have been the main referent, internationally, for the design of public policies for the elimination of poverty and the promotion of equality, within a sustainability framework. Thus, we intend to show the way in which international policies about sustainable development contribute to the weakening of national democracies, by displacing decision-taking processes to international organisms or influential transnational corporations.