The Failure of Governance
Right now (2026) our laws, both local and international, are failing to provide long term safety or well being. Laws are only obeyed when people can see a collective benefit in compliance. We have constructed a complex global civilisation of more than 8 billion people. Recent research reveals that the carrying capacity of Earth is about 2.5 billion.
We have constructed a global system of governance that has failed to protect us from ourselves. We have Declaration of Human Rights that ignores the limits of Earth. In 2022 the Human Rights Council resolution 48/13 unequivocally recognised the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment for all people. This ‘right’ is not being met for anyone alive today in 2026.
The Fair Start Movement are preparing a case against the global society. They are showing that society is fundamentally unfair and illegitimate because people are not equally empowered from birth, especially across race and wealth. They have examples of how people and institutions measure “progress” or “value” using unfair starting points that ignore real harm—especially to future generations and marginalized groups.
In his papers on SSRN, Alaka Oluwatobi has been exploring the way that our existing power structures interact. This paper explains why democracies fail to fairly represent their civilians. He reveals how big corporations and wealthy individuals are influencing governments and institutions so that the outcome serves their purpose rather than the general population.