This book argues that, under certain societal and institutional conditions, party-, interest group- and bureaucracy-based elites can interact positively to extend political timeframes beyond short electoral terms and foster reasoned long-term planning for democratic decision making.

Vesa Koskimaa is Senior Research Fellow at the Politics Unit of the Faculty of Management and Business, Tampere University, Finland.

Lauri Rapeli is Research Director at The Social Science Research Institute, Åbo Akademi University, Finland.

1. Introduction: Seeking legitimate remedies for democratic myopia 2. Analytical framework: Curbing democratic myopia with elite cooperation 3. Society and institutions: Forging capacities for future-regarding governance 4. Making future-regarding policies: Institutional capacities and operational conditions 5. The personal time orientations of policymakers 6. Main findings, conclusions and discussion