Green Liberalism: Free and the Green Society 
Customer Ratings: - Not what it says on the tin. The title and subtitle of this book are misleading. It is not about liberalism but about liberal democracy. It is not about the free but about subjects significantly constrained within a liberal democratic system. As such, its objective is much simpler than the ambitious task one would think it sets out to address.
If one accepts the Hayekian definition of liberty as that condition of men in which coercion of some by others is reduced as much as is possible in society, then there is genuine difficulty in reconciling liberty with constraint on human action in order to reduce environmental impact. Reconciling classical liberalism with environmental constraints would be an interesting, challenging and important task, but unfortunately it is not what Wissenburg sets out to do.
Wissenburg takes a woolier, liberal democratic definition of liberty, and mixes in other essentials of that middle-of-the-road creed that classical liberals would not recognise, such as notions of social preferences, positive rights and egalitarianism. This is a much simpler task, as he adopts enabling assumptions about the rights of government to identify and act in the social interest and to coerce people to achieve those ends. Those assumptions in place, Wissenburg is free to consider by what means and principles governments might direct society in order to promote green ends.
It is surprising but pleasing, therefore, that having given himself such latitude, his strongest conclusion is that the key lies with individuals, and their voluntary adoption of sustainable preferences. A classical liberal would not have needed 230 pages of liberal democratic analysis to reach this conclusion. And it begs the question, which should have been the subject of a book of this title, of how free individuals can express their preference for, and determine the value of sustainability.
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Green Liberalism: Free and the Green Society (ID: 1857288491)
