Equity – the democracy challenge of the century
Proudly presenting the publication of our fourth Working Paper
15 June
The IYTT Handbook for Innovative Democracy presents 39 policy proposals for decision makers. Of these, 19 is listed under the theme of equity. Several of the proposals under the two remaining themes education and governance, hinges on critical accounts of the current economic model.
Already our inaugural 2019 conference, launched a proposal the concept of well-being as a starting-point to repurpose economics. New measures of economic success and universal basic income was proposed to achieve enhanced economic freedom by the 2020 conference. To protect democracies from transitional inequalities, the 2021 conference proposed an intergenerational loans system. Finally, our latest conference in November 2022, suggested to replace GDP with a needs-based measurement of well-being to inform the development of a common good economy.
Singling out equity as the main contemporary democracy challenge, the youth of the IYTT express admirable analytical capacities and moral instincts. I am thus very proud when we today publish the IYTT Working Paper No. 4: Towards a New Economic Model Valuing Women and Natural Resources. Decomposing Orthodox Economics by De-Growth and Feminist Economic Theory.
The paper is written by Italian Youth Fellow Anita Sammarini, who joined the IYTT at the International Youth Conference 2022. Anita has a BA degree in International Economics and Management from Bocconi University, this summer obtaining her MA degree in Economics from the University of Pisa and Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies. She has worked as a Junior Analyst trainee for the Italian Ministry of Economic Development, and for the Italian National Statistical Institute.
The thrust of the paper is a bold critique of hegemonic economic thinking, and a visionary proposal for a new economic model, founded on feminist and de-growth economic theories. Elegantly and with academic rigor, Anita shows how the orthodox economic model has dominated political and economic life for decades, upholding the idea that indefinite economic growth is possible, while maintaining a careless exploitation of the environment, and a constant devaluation of female reproductive and care work.
