We are now – at least officially – in a post-colonial system. Yet, structures that have been established under colonial rule still have impacts on sustainable development perspectives for many developing countries. Among other things, the colonial experience brought about a weakness in economic terms, since the economic systems installed in the colonized countries had been shaped to serve the colonizing countries, not the colonies. Concerning trade, the colonies had to rely on very few products, usually raw materials, which were then turned into profitable products within a so called value chain, with those who extracted the commodity resources hardly receiving anything of the value the commodities achieved on the markets. The Rio-Declaration of 1992 therefore was indeed a milestone, since it established principles that would foster international solidarity as the basis for ensuring sustainable development in the Global South, especially the right to development which should balance environmental protection activities and the equity principle as expressed in the principle of common but differentiated responsibility (CBDR).
 

On my way to Rio, I read an article in the German weekly newspaper Die Zeit. The article is titled “The school of democracy” and in it, Axel Honneth, renowned professor of philosophy and director of the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt a. M., Germany, reflects on the broken link between political philosophy and pedagogy, that is, between our concepts of democracy and education. In the 19^th century, political philosophy regarded good education and a democratic system as complementary, since public education provided the individual with the necessary cultural and moral capabilities democracy depends on. Today, however, the decoupling of theories of democracy and education, which calls into question the ability of democratic systems to renew their own cultural preconditions, is promoted by a restrictive interpretation of the requirement of state neutrality as well as by demands for a more career oriented education, says Honneth.