Abstract
Settlers brought from Britain to the eastern shores of the United States several ideas of property and democracy that caused important problems. In the 1830s, Alexis de Tocqueville noted three tendencies among the settlers that threatened to destroy the benefits of democracy and the environment. They were individualism, materialism, and conformity. By the 1970s, the concept of ecology changed from a scientific term into a moral critique that urged people to restrain those tendencies. The process was difficult. Some critics argued that democratic governments were less effective in enacting conservation policies than authoritarian ones.
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© 2015 Joseph Watras
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Watras, J. (2015). Defining the Task. In: Philosophies of Environmental Education and Democracy: Harris, Dewey, and Bateson on Human Freedoms in Nature. The Cultural and Social Foundations of Education. Palgrave Pivot, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137484215_2
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