This article develops a philosophical framework for understanding transgenerationality as a foundational concept for intergenerational justice. Drawing on social ontology and the philosophy of action, it introduces the notion of transgenerational civitas—a temporally extended community composed of past, present and future generations. The paper argues that transgenerational actions, characterised by epistemic and agentic asymmetries, require a diachronic conception of justice that moves beyond reciprocity. By integrating ontological commitments with normative reasoning, the article proposes a model of vertical justice capable of addressing long-term collective responsibilities and mitigating the populist risks inherent in democratic systems.
Policy implications
- Legislators and constitutional designers should incorporate a transgenerational perspective into democratic decision-making by explicitly assessing the long-term consequences of policies whose effects extend beyond the present generation. This includes introducing future-oriented impact assessments that complement existing policy evaluation tools.
- Public institutions and regulatory bodies should recognise that policies with delayed and cumulative effects (e.g., climate policy, public debt, welfare systems, infrastructure) involve structural asymmetries between present and future citizens. These asymmetries call for forms of responsibility that cannot be grounded solely in reciprocal or short-term considerations.
- Governments and public administrations should adopt decision-making frameworks that preserve the conditions of agency for future generations, understood as members of the same political community. This requires prioritising policies that keep future options open rather than foreclosing them through irreversible choices.
- Democratic institutions should address presentist and populist dynamics by strengthening deliberative practices that explicitly account for long-term responsibilities. This does not presuppose widespread consensus on long-term goals, but rather the institutional recognition of temporal constraints that limit purely short-term decision-making. Framing democratic freedom as a practice of self-limitation over time can help mitigate political incentives that privilege immediate gains over intergenerational justice.
- International and transnational actors should treat transgenerational justice as a shared responsibility, particularly in policy domains where the actions of one generation or polity impose long-term constraints on others. Coordinated governance mechanisms are therefore essential to address transgenerational risks that exceed national boundaries.
Photo by Med Ahabchane