Singer, P. (2002) One World: The Ethics of Globalization (second
edition), Yale University Press, LondonA summary by: Felix de
Jongh, University of Amsterdam.
Contents
Page#
1A Changing World
1
2One Atmosphere
14
3One Economy
51
4One Law
106
5One Community
150
6A Better World?
196
disclaimer: I have not proofread this summary, nor am I a native
English-speaker. Therefore, some sentences might make no sense to
some. This should not be considered a definitive summary, just
something I did to help me study for my exam. I hope you can
overlook any flaws, as I provide this summary to you free of
charge.Chapter 1: A Changing Worldpage 1-13Globalization can have a
wide variety of aspects. Singer names two examples: the terrorist
attacks on 9/11 and the emission of carbon dioxide from SUV's. The
first brought instant death to many, the second contributes to
global warming which will slowly kill much more people world wide,
destroying crops in Africa, rising sea levels and spreading
tropical diseases. George W. Bush, the (then) 'leader' of the
globalized world, stated: We will not do anything that harms our
economy, because first things first are the people who live in
America. Fuel efficiency standards in the US haven't been raised
since 1985.
It is not just Bush who held this 'America-first' point of view;
his father stated at the 1992 Earth Summit the American lifestyle
is not up for negotiation. Clinton wasn't prepared to risk the life
of American soldiers in the Balkan to reduce the number of civilian
casualties, so they bombed it and caused about 500 civilian deaths.
However, no American soldier had been killed.
Timothy Garton Ash suggests there is a strong ethical case for
saying that it is wrong for leaders to give absolute priority to
the interests of their own citizens, as the value of the life of an
innocent human being does not vary according to nationality (p.4).
However, political leaders are not bound to consider the citizens
of other nations, just like parents aren't bound to provide for
someone else's children. There is no world political community,
just nation-states, and the leaders of those nation-states need to
protect their own citizens.
Another question this poses is: is the division of the world's
people into sovereign nations a dominant and unalterable fact of
life? A calculation by the UN points out that 2,500 trained
military personel could have saved 800,000 Rwandese from genocide.
Kofi Annan urged the world cannot stand aside when gross and
systematic violations of human rights are taking place. [] We need
legitimate and universal principles on which we can base
intervention. This means a redefinition of state sovereignty.
When in 1914 the Austro-Hungarian crown prince was murdered, the
Austrian government made demands to the Serbs that were labeled
vicious and tyrannical by other countries. However, when the US
made roughly the same demands to the Taliban after 9/11, the
security council endorsed it. World leaders now accept that every
nation has an obligation to every other nation of the world to
suppress activities within its borders that might lead to terrorist
attacks in other countries.
Implicit in the term globalization rather than the old
internationalization is the idea that we are moving beyond the era
of growing ties between nations and are beginning to contemplate
something beyond existing conception of the nation-state.
In his work A Theory of Justice (eds: veil of ignorance), Rawls
assumes that the people making the choice (of what is justice) all
belong to the same society and are choosing principles to achieve
justice within their society. When he concludes people seek to
improve the conditions of the 'worst off', while limiting the
conception of 'worst off' to those within one's own society. People
must be ignorant of their own citizenship to change the conditions
of the 'worst off' in the world. Rawls's model is an international
order, not a global order.
Technology changes everything, as Marx stated. Not only do we
buy fresh vegetables from Africa, planes bring illegal immigrants
looking for a better existence. Advanced communication spreads the
nature of international trade from actual goods to skilled
services. When capital is internationally mobile, raising taxes
risks triggering a flight of capital to other countries. When you
wear the 'Golden Straitjacket' (a set of policies that involve
freeing up the private sector of the economy, shrinking
bureaucracy, keeping inflation low, and removing restrictions on
foreign investment Thomas Friedman) the differences between major
parties shrink to differences over minor ways in which the jacket
might be adjusted.
Marx argued we never reject advances in the means by which we
satisfy our material needs, hence history is driven by the growth
of productive forces. He also believed that a society's ethic is a
reflection of the economic structure to which its technology has
given rise.
The thesis of this book is how well we come through the era of
globalization will depend on how we respond ethically to the idea
that we live in one world. For the rich nations not to take a
global ethical viewpoint has long been seriously morally wrong. Now
it is also, in the long term, a danger to their security.
Chapter 2: One Atmospherepage 14-50
the problem
there can be no clearer illustration of the need for human
beings to act globally than the issues raised by the impact of
human activity on our atmosphere. The threat of CFCs to the ozone
layer was discovered in the 1970s. Causing skin cancer and the
rapid growth of algae. Getting rid of CFCs was merely the curtain
raiser, the main event is climate change, or global warming.
The reported consequences will be that between 1990 and 2100,
temperatures will rise between 1.4 and 5.8 degrees celcius. It is
possible the changes could be enough to reach critical tipping
points at which the weather systems alter or the directions of
major ocean currents such as the gulf stream, change. This could
have variable effects for humans:- As oceans become warmer,
hurricanes and tropical storms that are now largely confined to the
tropics will move farther from the equator, hitting large urban
areas that have not been built to cope with them. This is a
prospect that is viewed with great concern in the insurance
industry, which has already seen the cost of natural disasters rise
dramatically in recent decades.
- Tropical diseases will become more widespread (eds: e.g.
Malaria)
- Food production will rise in some regions, especially in the
high northern latitudes, and fall in others, including sub-saharan
Africa.
- Sea levels will rise by between 9 and 88 cm.Rich countries
would, at a high cost, be able to defend themselves from these
effects. In Bangladesh, 70 million peoples will be affected by
rising tides, either by losing their lands or losing their lives.
The same goes for China and Egypt. Heat stress could kill a lot
more people, but on the other side of the spectrum, deaths from
winter cold could decrease.
The cost for animals and biodiversity would be most severe.
Where possible, animals would migrate along with their favourite
climate. However, for some regions this is impossible, for instance
in Australia. All of this forces us to think about our ethics, our
value system evolved in circumstances in which the atmosphere, like
the oceans, seemed an unlimited resource.
Rio and KyotoThere is a gap in environmental legislation on a
global basis. However, if Norway can sue Great Britain for
radioactive lobster due to a leaking nuclear power plant, Kiribati
could possibly sue the United States for greenhouse gases.
Accepting their claims makes us one world in a new and far more
sweeping sense than before, which gives rise to a need for
concerted international action.
In 1988 the International Panel on Climate Change was initiated
by the UN Environment Program and the World Meteorological Office.
In 1990 the IPCC concluded the threat of climate change was
real.
The 1997 Kyoto protocol set targets for 39 developed countries
to limit or reduce their emissions by 2012. To assist countries
reach their goals it accepted the principle of emissions trading,
where one country can trade emission with another which has some to
spare. The protocol didn't settle on details of how countries could
meet their targets, and how emission trading was to operate. In
2001 in Bonn and Marrakech, 178 countries reached an agreement that
makes it possible for the Kyoto Protocol to go into effect. The US
was not part of this agreement.
Skeptics say the protocol will only slow the climate change, not
reverse it, and that the costs of putting the agreement into effect
are not worth it. These costs could be used to develop the poorest
countries economically and ecologically so they can cope better
with climate change. Lomborg states the Kyoto Protocol will lead to
a net loss of 150$ Billion. But, if the developing nations join in
once they see the developed nations are serious it could lead to a
net benefit of $61 Billion through emissions trading. These numbers
by Lomborg don't reflect the deaths by natural disasters or
diseases. An ethical, not an economic justification would be needed
for counting suffering and deaths.
What is an Equitable Distribution?In regards to fairness, it is
custom to follow Robert Nozick's definition in distinguishing
between historical and time-slice principles. An historical
principle is one that says: we can't decide, merely by looking at
the present situation, whether a giver distribution of goods is
just or unjust we must also ask how the situation came about and
its history. Are the parties entitled, by an originally justifiable
acquisition and a chain of legitimate transfers to the holdings
they now have? If so, the present distribution is just. A
time-slice principle looks at the existing distribution and asks if
that distribution satisfies some principles of fairness,
irrespective of any preceding sequence of events.
A Historical Principle: You broke it, now you fix it.In 1690,
John Locke stated: The earth and all that is therein is given to
men for the support and comfort of their being. The earth and its
contents belong to mankind in common. Private property can exist
because our labor is our own, hence when we mix our own labor with
the land and its products, we make them our own. According to
Locke, as long as the appropriation of what is held in common does
not prevent there being enough and as good left in common for
others. This justification of the acquisition of private propertyis
the classic historical account of how property is legitimate. The
same goes for producing waste.
The global atmosphere is a sponge in which we pour our waste. It
has however, reached its full capacity and is now causing harm to
others. It becomes impossible to justify polluting by claiming that
we are leaving enough and as good for others. It has become a
finite resource which needs to be allocated justly.
Smith, along with Locke, also justified the right of the rich to
their wealth. His 'invisible hand' would bring about a distribution
that is nearly the same if wealth was evenly distributed. In order
to obtain what they want, the rich spread their wealth troughout
the entire economy.
The historical grounds for private property cannot be applied to
the current use of the atmosphere. Locke's and Smith's arguments
imply that this appropriation of a resource once common to all
mankind is not justifiable. The global distribution of wealth is
the result of the wrongful expropriation by a small fraction of the
world's population of a resource that belongs to all human beings
in common.Time-Slice PrinciplesThe historical view puts forth that
the developed nations are to blame. In their defense, at the time
they put most of their greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, they
did not know of the limits to the capacity of said atmosphere to
absorb them. It would therefore be fairer, it may be claimed, to
make a fresh start and set standards that look to the future rather
than the past. Although, even here, one could argue that ignorance
is no excuse and a stricter standard of liability should prevail,
especially since the developed nations reaped the benefits of their
early industrialization.
An Equal Share for EveryoneEveryone has the same claim to part
of the atmosphere as everyone else. We need to ask how much carbon
each country would be allowed to emit and compare that with what
they are now emitting. The first question would be, what is the
total acceptable level of carbon emission. If we focus on
stabilizing carbon emissions at their present levels, the
allocation per person works out at about 1 metric ton per year.
Now compare some actual per capita emissions for some key
nations. The US produces more than 5 tons. Japan and Western
European nations have per capita emissions that range from 1.6 to
4.2 tons. In the developing world, emissions average .6 tons, China
at .76 and India at .29. India can raise it more than 3 times,
while the US has to drop to 20% of their current emissions.
One objection to this approach is that allowing countries to
have allocations based on the number of people they have gives them
insufficient incentive to do anything about population growth. A
nation that increases its population imposes additional burdens on
other nations, as the emission per capita would diminish. Nations
with zero growth would have to decrease their carbon outputs.
Different countries have different proportions of young people
about to hit the reproductive age to those with older residents.
Per capita allocation could be based on an estimate of a country's
likely population at some given future date. Rewards and Penalties
could be given out if countries differ from that estimate (reward
for lower, penalty for higher pop.)Aiding the Worst-offThis is all
a fair starting point, a position that should prevail unless there
are good reasons from moving from it. Are there? Fairness also
takes the view that we should improve the prospects of those who
are worst off, if their poverty is due to circumstances for which
they are not responsible.
Rawls holds that, when we distribute goods, we can only justify
giving more to those who are already well off if this will improve
the position of those who are worst off. Otherwise, we should only
give to those who are at the lowest level. This approach departs
from 'equality'. In accordance with Rawls's principle, the only
grounds on which one could argue against rich nations bearing all
the costs of reducing emissions would be that to do so would make
the poor nations even worse off than they would have been if the
rich nations were not bearing all the costs. George W. Bush's
announcements (chapter 1) was an attempt to make this case.
However, economic growth only benefits US citizens.
The Greatest Happiness PrincipleClassic Utilitarians would not
support any of the principles of fairness discussed so far. The
would ask what proposal would lead to the greatest net happiness
(=what is left after deducting suffering). How would one do such a
calculation? What way of capping greenhouse gases would lead to the
greatest net benefits?
Fairness: A ProposalSinger supports the principle of equal per
capita future entitlements, due to its simplicity and its
suitability to political compromise. By saying forget about the
past, lets start anew the pure equal per capita share principle is
a lot more favorable to the developed nations than a historically
based principle would be.
The fact that 178 nations (excluding the US) have now indicated
their intention to ratify the Kyoto protocol makes the position of
the US odious from an ethical perspective. The claim the protocol
does not require the developing nations to do their share does not
stand up to scrutiny. Americans are really demanding that the poor
nations of the world commit themselves to a level that gives them
in perpetuity, lower levels of greenhouse gas production per capita
than the rich nations have.
There is a mechanism can make the transition towards capped
greenhouse gas emissions that would make it much easier for
industrialized countries; emissions trading. This could provide
great benefits for developing nations. The point of the protocol is
not to punish nations with high emissions, but to produce the best
outcome for the atmosphere. Emissions trading gives us a better
chance at achieving its goals.
Since global emissions trading is both possible and desirable,
it also answers two objections to allocating greenhouse emissions
quotas on the basis of equal per capita shares. It answers the
objection raised when disccussing a utilitarian approach to these
problems (net happiness). Second, global emissions trading answers
the objection that equal per capita shares would lead to
inefficient production because countries with little
industrialization would be able to continue to manufacture goods
even though they emit more greenhouse gases per unit of economic
activity than highly industrialized nations would have to cut back
on their manufacturing capacity.
There are two objections to emissions trading, one scientific
and one ethical. Scientific: we do not have the means to measure
emissions accurately for all countries, so it is impossible to put
quota's in place. Ethical: In the absence of any legitimate
government that government that can receive payment for quota (due
to corruption, authoritarian gov, etc) payment can be received by
an institution governerd by the UN.
Down from the CloudsSince 1990 US emissions have risen by 14%.
Half-hearted measures proposed by GW Bush will at best slow that
trend, not reverse it. The aim for this chapter helps us to see
there is no ethical basis for the present distribution of the
atmosphere's capacity to absorb greenhouse gases without dramatic
climate change. If industrialized countries, like the US, refrain
from taking measures, they excercize their rights as sovereign
nations. The military power these nations yield makes it impossible
to impose a more ethically defensible solution on them.
Chapter 3: One Economypage 51 105
The World Trade Organisation FracasIf there is one organisation
that critics of globalizations point to as responsible for pushing
the process onward (in the wrong way) is the WTO. A widespread view
of the WTO sees it as the mechanism for accelerating and extending
the transfer of peoples' sovereignty from nation states to global
corporations.
Has any non-criminal organization ever been so vehemently
condemned on such wide-ranging grounds by critics from so many
different countries as the WTO? The regime of trade and investment
fostered by the WTO has unleashed global economic forces that
systematically punish ecologically sound forestry while rewarding
destructive practices that accelerate forest degradation, according
to Victor Menotti (director of a US-based environment program).
According to a British campaigner for farm animals, the WTO is the
biggest threat facing animal welfare today. Someone else thinks its
an instrument to govern the South. An Indian writes the rules of
the WTO are primarily rules of robbery, camouflaged by arithmetic
and legalese, and global free trade in food and agriculture is the
biggest refugee creation program in the world, leading to
slavery.
After the 1999 Seattle WTO-summit (which had a lot of protests),
politicians and capitalists swiftly dismissed the protesters as
falling into two groups: firstly those who had good intentions in
their concern to protect the environment or help the world's
poorest people but were nave and misled by their emotions; and
those who, under the cynical guise of defending human rights and
the environment, were seeking to protect their own well-paid jobs
in inefficient industries by high tariff barriers that raise costs
for domestic consumers and leave workers in less developed
countries stuck in dire poverty (i.e. against free-trade).
Bill Clinton and Tony blair were quick learners, stating that
genuine issues had been raised and they needed serious
consideration. However, there was no real discussion of what those
issues might be or how they might be resolved. Globalization was
seen as unquestionable. The alternative was just globaphobia.
Endlessly repeated rituals of street theater (eds: demonstrations)
do not provide opportunities for the kind of discussion that is
needed.
The Four ChargesAmong the many charges commonly made against the
WTO, four are central to any assessment of the role that the WTO,
and economic globalization more generally, plays in forming a world
that is different from anything that has existed up to now:
1. The WTO places economic considerations ahead of concerns for
the environment, animal welfare, and even human rights.
2. The WTO erodes national sovereignty
3. The WTO is undemocratic
4. The WTO increases inequality; or (a strong charge) it makes
the rich richer and leaves the world's poorest people even worse
off than they would otherwise have been.
The WTO was established during the Uruguay Round of talks held
by the GATT, and came into existence in January 1995. By January
2002 it had 144 member nations, accounting for 97% of the world
trade. It is foundated by the belief in specialization of
production. If one member nation believes that it is disadvantaged
by actions taken by another member nation that are breach of the
30.000 page rule book, the first nation can make a complaint. If
the offending nation keeps their practices up, the WTO can even
impose tariffs against its own goods (i.e. goods produced by the
offending nation)
The First Charge: Economics as TrumpsThe WTO officially stated
commercial interests take precedence over environmental production.
However, they state that members of the WTO can, should and do take
measures to protect endangered species, to which it adds: What's
important in the WTO's rules is that measures taken to protect the
environment must not be unfair. For example, they must not
disciminate. You cannot be lenient with your own producers and at
the same time be strict with foreign goods and services.
This could mean the US could impose a ban on imported tuna
caught with methods that drown dolphins, as long as it also
prohibits the sale of tuna caught by american ships with the same
methods. The WTO opposes, it seems, only measures that use
environmental protection as a guise for the protection of domestic
industries against foreign competition.
The misuse of the Product/Process distinctionThere is a
distinction between product (the quality or content) and process
(the way it is produced), which is crucial to understanding the
impact of WTO rules in many areas. A country cannot ban a product
on the basis of the process by which the product was made but only
by showing that the banned product is differint in its inherent
nature from other products. Precedents are, for instance:
In 1991 the EU agreed to prohibit the sale of furs that had come
from animals caught in steel-jaw leghold traps (bear traps). These
traps crush and hold the animal's lag, holding the animal until the
trapper returns (often days). Nocturnal animals are so terrified of
daylight they often chew of their own leg, or they die of
dehidration. It is however, impossible to tell if a pelt has come
from an animal caught in one of these traps or a relatively humane
method. Thus, the EU banned the import from countries that had not
banned the steel-jaw traps. US, Canada and Russia filed complaints
with the WTO, and the EU caved in. (Similarly, the EU banned
cosmetics tested on animals, but was advised that this would be in
breach of the WTO rules. The ban was never implemented)
The WTO decisions rest on the claim that the product (the fur,
the cosmetics) is the same product as other products allowed to be
sold in the country. The fact they are the outcome of a different
process is irrelevant. Why this is, might be hinted by the
tuna-dolphin example: if the US arguments were accepted, then any
country could ban imports of a product from another country merely
because the exporting country has different environmental, health
and social policies from its own. [] The door would be opened to a
possible flood of protectionist abuses.
The argument assumes that the value of preventing such a flood
of protectionist abuses is greater than the value of protecting the
environment, animals, and community peace of mind. Import
prohibitions against goods produced in ways that violate human
rights (for example, by using forced labor, or pushing indigenous
people off their land) would also fail to pass the test of being
applied to a product, rather than a process. This will drastically
curtail the means by which a nation can protect its values.
The first test should be whether the measure taken to protect
the environment or animal welfare deals evenhandedly with the
nation's own producers and with foreign producers. If it does, then
the measure is acceptable, and any nation seeking to have it
invalidated should be required to show that the environmental or
other objectives the measure purports to aim at could reasonably
have been achieved without restricting trade to the extent that the
measure does restrict it.
Closing the door for a possible flood of protectionist abuses
also means the inability to protect from products which come from
dumping toxic wastes into the ocean, cruelty to animals or denying
workers the right to unionize.
The undermining of GATT's Article XXNotwithstanding the use that
the WTO disputes panels have made of the product/process
distinction, one article of the GATT appears to give explicit
blessing to import bans undertaken for various purposes, including
the protection of the environment. Article XX reads as follows:
General Exceptions
Subject to the requirement that such measures are not applied in
a manner which would constitute a means of arbitrary or
unjustifiable discrimination between countries where the same
conditions prevail, or a disguised restriction on international
trade, nothing in this Agreement shall be construed to prevent the
adoption or enforcement by any contracting party of measures:
(a) necessary to protect public morals;
(b) necessary to protect human, animal or plant life or
health;...
(g) relating to the conservation of exhaustible natural
resources if such measures are made effective in conjunction with
restrictions on domestic production or consumption
The most natural reading of this article would give a country
several grounds on which it could prohibit the importation of goods
obtained in ways that threaten dolphins or cause great suffering to
animals.
There are two possible justifications for the product/process
rue. The first is the claim that to prohibit a product because of
the way in which it is made is to attempt to exercise
extraterritorial jurisdiction. The second is that to depart from
the product/process rule may make it more difficult to distinguish
genuine measures for protecting the environment from disguised
forms of protectionism.
The november 2001 summit saw signs of a willingness to
reconsider the rules ensuring that free trade trumps other values.
The meeting allowed for the inclusion of, in the next round of
trade talks, discussions on non-trade concerns in agriculture. One
of these concerns is maintaining the economy of rural areas where
the local economy depends on small farms that would not be able to
withstand competition from other countries where farming is on a
much larger scale. It remains to be seen whether values other than
that of free trade will be given real weight.
The Second Charge: Interference with National SovereigntyIf the
WTO does give precedence to commercial interests, is it reasonable
to say that it does so only at the behest of its member states,
which have the final decision on whether or not to go along with
the WTO's rules? The standard response to criticism is that the WTO
merely forms a framework of legislation that sovereign nations
enter willfully. Since the WTO is an expression of the decisions of
sovereign governments, it is not something that can interfere with
national sovereignty.
This may be true in formal terms, but it leaves out some
important practical details. Once a government joins the WTO, it
and its successors come under pressure to remain member. Industries
developed under free trade could collapse if one withdraws from the
WTO. This is a form of Friedman's Golden Straitjacket (chapter
1).
The diminished sovereignty might be a price worth paying for the
benefits the WTO brings. Before criticizing the WTO for national
sovereignty whe should ask: is there any alternative means by which
nations and their citizens could gain those benefits?
People on the Left have traditionally been internationalists,
but because the WTO puts free trade above both environmental values
and national sovereignty that the Left has formed an alliance with
the nationalist Right.
The Third Charge: The WTO is Undemocratic (p.75)
The WTO asserts in their 10 Common Misunderstandings: Decisions
in the WTO are generally made by consensus. In principle, that's
even more democratic than majority rule because everyone has to
agree. However, rule by consensus mean rule by the veto it takes
the opposition of only a single member to stop an overwhelming
majority from making changes. The idea of giving everyone the right
of veto is more democratic is a fallacy which helps preserve the
status quo. Another problem would be that developing nations make
up the majority of WTO members, but the 10 Common Misunderstandings
asserts: It would be wrong to suggest that every country has the
same bargaining power. In practice, the agenda is set by informal
meetings of the major trading powers, i.e. the US, the EU, Japan
and Canada. Once these powers have reached agreement, the results
are presented to the formal meeting where they often already in
effect. Some of the developing nations cannot even afford to
maintain an office in Geneva.
It is true that the WTO trade rules were negotiated by
member-governments and ratified in members' parliaments, but the
interpretations of those rules adopted by the dispute resolution
panels and the Appellate Body have not been ratiefied by those
parliaments. The governments had reason to believe that Article XX
guaranteed that the agreement into which they were entering would
not prevent them from acting in good faith to protect public
morals; human, animal or plant life or health; or in ways relating
to the conservation of exhaustible natural resources. The Appellate
Body interpreted Article XX in a manner that no one could have
predicted, virtually emptying it of substantive content.
Even if WTO decision were taken by a majority of the states that
are members of the WTO, this would still not be a democratic
decision-procedure. It would give the democratically elected
government of India, representing a billion people, the same number
of votes (one) as the democratically elected government of Iceland
(representing 275,000). There is no formal mechanism for
recognizing the difference in population size. In absence of this
mechanism, the WTO cannot be a truly democratic institution.
The Fourth Charge: Taking from the Poor to Give to the Rich
(p.77)
Against the charge the WTO is a 'Robin Hood-in-reverse', GW Bush
echoed the line taken by most advocates of global free trade when
he said in a speech at the world bank: Those who protest free trade
are no friends of the poor. Those who protest free trade seek to
deny them their best hope for escaping poverty.
Although critics agree that the WTO has done more to help global
corporations than to help the poor, the facts are not easy to sort
out (eds: no counterfactual?), and on some aspects of this
question, leading opponents of the WTO do no speak with one voice.
Criticism differs from not creating a level playing field to the
poor nations to the loss of jobs to Canada and Mexico by the US
through free trade.
Another relevant question is whether free trade means cheaper
goods, and whether this is good for the poor. Liberalization of
trade in India means that more food is exported, and as a result
food prices have doubled and the poor had had to cut their
consumption in half. On top of that, cheap subsidized imports of
soybeans are dumped on the Indian market, thus worsening the
country's balance of payments situation and closing small
independent Indian farms due to bankruptcy. These claims (doubled
food prices, cheaper imported soybeans) however, seem conflicting.
The critic, Vandana Shiva, doesn't give an explanation.
In trying to asses the impact of recent trade reforms, it is
useful to distinguish two questions:-Has Inequality increased
during the period of global economic liberalization
-Have the Poor become worse off?About 1.2 Billion people live
under the poverty line, of which 826 million lack adequate
nutrition, more than 850 million are illiterate and lack almost all
acces to even the most basic sanitation. In rich countries, >1%
of children dies before the age of 5. In the poorest, >20% dies.
30,000 children die every day from preventable causes.
It is a commonly acknowledged fact that the gap between the rich
and poor nations has widened. Even the WTO stated in 1999: It is an
empirical fact that the income gap between poor and rich countries
has increased in recent decades. The gap between rich and poor
nations grew, between 1820 and 1960, 1.66% annually. Between 1990
and 1997, the gap grew on average 3% per year. There are a certain
set of problems, however, comparing average wages.
Branko Milanovic put it on the basis of the research he has done
this way: It is impossible to aver whether inequality is really
increasing or whether we see just a temporary spike, or indeed
whether the change in the coefficients is statistically significant
bearing in mind numerous and serious data problems.
On theoretical grounds, there is some reason to believe that
open markets and free trade should increase economic welfare as a
whole. The theory finds support in an 'Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development' (OECD) study showing that when
corporations go into foreign countries, they generally pay more
than the national average wage. But information about average wages
does not alleviate concerns about poverty, as long as inequality is
increasing.
World Bank researchers found that globalization benefits the
majority, but its burden falls on the poorest 40%, for whom
openness lead to a fall in economic growth. They conclude at least
in the short run, globalization appears to increase poverty and
inequality.
Judgement (p.90)
Firstly, the WTO does place economic considerations ahead of
environmental protection. Second, the WTO does not formally impair
sovereignty, but in practic they reduce the scope of national
sovereignty. Third, the WTO is undemocratic in theory and practice.
The fourth charge, that it makes the poor poorer and the rich
richer, is not proven. Available evidence is insufficient to
convict either globalization or the WTO for that charge. This
assessment is based on the actions of the WTO up to the November
2001 Doha summit.
Can Do Better? (p.91)
Whether we accept or reject the claim that economic
globalization is a good thing, we can still ask if there are ways
of making it work better, or at least less badly. If we assume that
people in fact do act fully rational and on the basis of perfect
information, free trade within a single, well-governed nation can
be expected to create a state of affairs that is 'Pareto
efficient', where no no one's welfare can be improved without
reducing the welfare of at least one other person. A corporation
polluting a river would have to pay for damages to people, and
clean it up. Thus, the cost of keeping the environment clean become
part of the costs of production. Saving money by cutting corners
does in fact not give any long term economic advantage.
However, a national government could overlook environmental
damages by corporations to gain an advantage to countries that
don't. Thus, without global environmental protection there is no
reason to expect free trade to be Pareto efficient.
The WTO has up to now been dominated by neoliberal economic
thinking. With some signs that the WTO is willing to rethink this
approach, it is possible to imagina a reformed WTO in which the
overwhelming commitment to free trade is replaced by a commitment
to more fundamental goals. It could then become a tool for pursuing
these objectives. There are even clauses in GATT that could become
the basis for affirmative action in trade, designed to help the
least developed nations. Under the present WTO regime, these
clauses have not come into practice. Especially the EU and US have
failed to do even their fair share of reducing their own trade
barriers in those areas that would do most good for the less
developed nations.
Trade, Legitimacy, and Democracy (p.96)
We tend to think of trade as something politically neutral.
Governments generally keep the question of whether they should
trade with a country separate from the question of whether they
approve of its government. The US attacks China for its human
rights abuse while at the same time it keeps expanding its trade
with China. But sometimes trade deals imply moral judgement, mostly
when transnational corporations make deals with undemocratic
governments. Shell for instance pays 6 billion dollar annually to
sell Nigeria's oil, thereby judging that the mostly military
dictatorships that have ruled Nigeria have to right to sell
Nigeria's natural resources. What gives a government the moral
right to sell the resources of the country over which it rules?
The same question can be asked about international borrowing
principles. Corrupt dictators are allowed to borrow money from
foreign countries or international lending bodies, and if they
happen to be overthrown, the burden of paying off those loans is on
the legitimate next government. If it refuses, it can be excluded
from international financial institutions and suffer adverse
consequences. Effective control of a territory is seen as being
enough to be able to loan.
The concept of legitimacy most often seemingly held by the UN
and other international organisations reads as follows: In such a
conception, the international system regards ruling apparatuses of
self-sufficient sources of authority or rather deems their
authority to derive from their characteristic ability to secure the
acquiescence of their populaces, by whatever means [] a government
is recognized simply because its existence is a fact of life.
There is an alternate, more ethical view. Thomas Jefferson wrote
to the US Ambassador to France in 1972: It accords with our
principles to acknowledge any government to be rightful which is
formed by the will of the people, substantially declared. The claim
that there is a fundamental human right to take part in deciding
who governs us provides one reason for denying the legitimacy of a
government that cannot show that it represents the will of the
people. A fundamental human right proclaimed by the 'Universal
Declaration of Human Rights', which is further confirmed by the
legal force of the 'International Covenant on Civil Rights and
Political Rights': All people have the right of self-determination.
By virtue of that right they freely determine their political
status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural
development.Chapter 4: One Lawpage 106-149 The Need for
Intervention (p.106)
Support for an universal prohibition on genocide and crimes
against humanity shows more clearly than any other issue how our
conception of the sovereign rights of states has changed over the
past 50 years. This chapter examines why that has happened, how it
has been defended, and why it is justified.
The horrific mass killings of the twentieth century were not a
new phenomenon, except insofar modern technology and communications
enabled the killers to murder far more people in a relatively brief
period of time than had ever happened before. Burial pits
containing people of all ages who have met violent deaths go back
at least 7,000 years. Women are generally spared, as killing rival
males with whom one does not share any genes and mating with their
wives and daughters is one way in which men can enhance their
prospects of leaving their genes in subsequent generations. Even
Chimpanzees form raiding parties, killing vulnerable males from
other groups, as observed by Jane Goodall, keeping two young
daughters of an adult female alive for themselves.
Not all men are potential perpetrators of genocide, some are
'cooperators', forming mutually beneficial bonds. Eliminating
poverty, injustice and improving education may make genocide less
likely, we can however not rely on these policies alone to prevent
it. 1920S Germany was one of the most educated countries in the
world. Developing mechanism to promote peace and reduce the risk of
war between nations is important, for the mentality of war breaks
down inhibitions and makes men more prone to kill noncombatants as
well as the enemy's armed forces. The last line of defense should
be law enforcement, instilling fear into perpetrators of genocide
for repercusions. The method of last resort will be military
intervention.
The Development of International Criminal Law (p.112)
The charter of the International Military Tribunal set up by the
Allies to try the leading Nazi war criminals at Nuremberg gave it
jurisdiction over three kinds of crimes: crimes against peace, war
crimes, and crimes against humanity. Allies declared it a 'crime
against peace' to initiate a war of aggression; a 'war crime' to
murder, ill-treat, or deport either civillians or POWs; and a
'crime against humanity' to murder, exterminate, enslave, or deport
any civillian population, or to persecute them on political,
racial, or religious grounds. These acts transcend sovereign state
laws.
Subsequently, the United Nations General Assembly asked the
International Law Commission to formulate principles of
international law relating to crimes such as those dealt with by
the Nuremberg Tribunal and the Commission recommended that there
should be international criminal responsibility for crimes against
humanity committed at the instigation or with the toleration of
state authorities. The 1984 'convention against torture' was signed
by 110 countries. However, there where problems with the
international jurisdiction: who could give who a trial? Did
Israel's execution of Eichmann deny gypsies and Poles justice? To
answer this, in January 2001 scholars agreed on what would be named
the 'Princeton Principles on Universal Jurisdiction', which could
establish a truly global jurisdiction for the crimes they
cover.
To make the prosecution of crimes against humanity a permanent
feature of international law, respresentatives of 160 states met in
Rome in 1998 and agreed to set up an International Criminal Court
in The Hague (eds: yay!). It came into existence in 2002, thus the
world has for the first time a permanent international body
enforcing international criminal law. The US however, saw to exempt
its soldiers and officials from prosecution. Clinton signed on, but
didn't ratify the treaty. Bush said he is opposed to the court.
After 9/11 though, the US set up military tribunals for the trial
of suspected terrorist who are not US citizens. As with the
intellectual property rights, the US uses a double standard,
treating foreigners differently from their own citizens.
Criteria for Humanitarian Intervention (p.120)
Punishing the criminals after an atrocity has occurred is
something that most people would support because of their belief
that this is what justice requires. From a Utilitarian perspective,
punishing those guilty of past crimes will put others who might do
the same off in fear of repercusions. Fear of punishment isn't
always sufficient. Intervention could be a way to prevent a crime,
or stop one from going on. Under what circumstances should
countries act on their responsibility to protect?
UN-Secretary General Kofi Annan suggested that intervention is
justified when death and suffering are being inflicted on large
numbers of people, and when the state nominally in charge is unable
or unwilling to stop it. He defends this by saying the aim of the
UN Charter is to protect individual human beings, not to protect
those who abuse them. Singer's ultimate conclusion is as
follows:
Humanitarian intervention is justified when it is a response
(with reasonable expectations of succes) to acts that kill or
inflict serious bodily harm on large numbers of people, or
deliberately inflict on them conditions of life calculated to bring
about their physical destruction, and when the state nominally in
charge is unable or unwilling to stop it.Though, how many people is
a 'large number'? How serious does the bodily or mental harm have
to be? Who will decide when conditions of life that bring about the
physical destruction of large numbers of people have been
deliberately inflicted upon them? A Canadian report cut down the
criteria for military intervention to just two:
A. Large loss of life, actual or apprehended, with genocidal
intent or not, which is the product either of deliberate state
action, or state neglect or inability to act, or a failed state
situation; or,
B. Large-scale ethnic cleansing, actual or apprehended, whether
carried out by killing, forced expulsion, acts of terror or
rape.The Authority of the United Nations (p.127)
The UN charter places two sets of obligations on its members, to
respect human rights and not to interfere in the internal matters
of another state. They are pledged to observe and promote, but
bound not to impose, wholesale internal practices. So does
humanitarian intervention violate this charter? We could reconcile
the charter with humanitarian intervention if we could defend at
least one of the following claims:1.The violation of human rights
is itself a threat to international peace.Human tragedies in Iraq,
Somalia and Haiti have been solved with humanitarian intervention.
Effectively the Security Council has an unconstrained mandate to
interfere wherever it sees fit. There is no basis in international
law for attributing such powers to the Security Council. For
instance, the overthrowing of the democratically elected president
Aristide of Haiti was seen as a threat to international peace, but
was more a moral judgement in stead of using hard facts, as the
turmoil in Haiti wouldn't have affected international
peace.2.Democracies are the best guardians of peaceA second
strategy would be to invoke the argument that no war has ever
occurred between two democratic states. This is controversial, as
it depends on the definitions of both war and democracy. Even if
there hasn't been an example, there will inevitably be one in the
future. However, it is true that war between democracies is less
likely. 3.The rights of domestic jurisdiction retained by the
states in Article 2(7) do no extend to committing crimes against
humanity, nor to allowing them to be committed within one's
domestic jurisdiction.This third strategy draws on the body of
international law that holds that there is universal jurisdiction
over those who commit genocide or other crimes against humanity.
However, Russia, China and more or less so the US don't recognize
any limitations to their sovereignty.Singer proposes a fourth
strategy, which builds on the discussion in the previous chapter
questioning the standard view of what it takes for a government to
be legitimate, the democratic view proposes that a government has
to have popular support in order for it to be legit. If it would
repress it's citizens, it wouldn't gain support, wouldn't be seen
as legitimate, and wouldn't get a seat at the UN. If it would use
violence against its own people, there would be no constraints
holding intervention back. This could increase the instances of
war, but this risk must be weighed against the prospect of
supporting democracy and reducing the number of governments that
are little more than gangs of brigands pillaging a country.
Consequentialist arguments would still apply, war causes immense
suffering and loss of life, and should always be used as a last
resort.Will the Spread of Democracy Provide Protection Against
Genocide? (p.135)
In the first part of this chapter, Singer argued there might be
a genetic basis for the willingness of people to commit genocide.
Later he suggested that where a regime rules by force there is no
legitimate sovereign to stand in the way of an intervention that
can reasonably be expected to have good consequences. But how can
we have faith in democracy as a means of preventing, rather than
promoting, genocide? If violence is genetic, why can't it be in
democracy?
Rwanda was moving towards a multi-party democracy prior to the
massacre, and since 85% of the populace was Hutu, it is possible
that more democracy would not have stopped the murdering of Tutsis.
Milosevic was twice elected by large majorities, in Serbia and
Yugoslavia. Democracy does not provide a guarantee agains human
rights violations, but a democratic process requires that the
policies of the government must be publicly defended and justified,
and cannot simmply be implemented from above. Even if many of us
have the capacity to commit terrible crimes, many of us have a
moral sense to detect wrongdoings. Even the Nazi's weren't open
about what they were doing to the jews to the german citizens. Open
procedures and public scrutiny may not be perfect against genocide,
but they do help.
Does Intervention Do More Good Than Harm? (p.137)
The democratic concept of legitimite government policies implies
that the concept of national sovereignty carries no weight if the
government rests on force alone, justifying intervention in such
countries. But if justification is so easy, will it not be used so
often that it will be abused? This objection rests on a failure to
distinguish between legal and ethical justification, Singer quotes:
It makes no moral sense to rescue a village and start WW3, or a
destroy a village in order to save it. We need rules and procedures
making intervention difficult to justify, because some nations are
capable of deceiving themselves into believing that their desire to
expand their influence in the world is really an altruistic concern
to defend democracy and human rights (eds: GW Bush anyone?).
Some say tyranny isnt the worst enemy, but anarchy. In some
cases the collapse of the nations-state has led to a situation in
which power is wielded by armed criminals. Intervention can lead to
the same outcome, because it too destroys the nation-state (eds:
Syria?). There is an important ethical point at issue here: if it
was justifiable to intervene against Serbia in Kosovo, then it must
also be justifiable to intervene in Chechnya or Tibet. However,
there might be a legal basis and even a just cause, but the human
costs of the resulting war made it unjustifiable to intervene. This
isn't 'double standards', but only one: the right to do what will
have the best consequences. The costs would be way higher than the
benefits.Avoiding Cultural Imperialism (p.139)
It is sometimes said that to intervene in other countries to
protect human rights is a form of cultural imperialism. Are we not
repeating the errors of Western missionaries sent out to Africa,
and told the 'primitive' people to cover their nakedness, practice
monogamy, etc? Have we not learned that morality is relative to
one's own society, and our morals are no better than theirs? Moral
relativists imagine they are defending the rights of peoples of
non-Western cultures to preserve their own values, but it
undermines all ethical arguments against cultural imperialism. If
morality is always relative to the individual society, there is no
way of expressing a transcultural or objective moral judgment about
anything, including respect for other peoples cultures. If us
Westerners like to suppress other peoples cultures, than that is
part of 'our' culture, and the relativist can offer no reason why
we should not simply go on with it. (eds: hehe)
A much better case against cultural imperialism can be made from
the standpoint of a view of ethics that allows for the possibility
of moral argument beyond the boundaries of one's own culture. Then
we can argue that distinctive cultures embody ways of living that
have been developed over countless generations, that when they are
destroyed the accumulated wisdom is lost, and that we are all
enriched by being able to observe and appreciate a diversity of
cultures. Western culture has no monopoly on wisdom, has often
learned from other cultures and still has much to learn. We can
argue we should do more to preserve those cultures. However,
cultures should not lack the element of consideration of others
that is required of any justifiable ethic (for instance, female
genetic mutilation should not be accepted as a cultural trait, but
banned).
The 'Golden Rule', treat others as you would like them to treat
you is based on reciprocity, which elevates the idea into a
distinct principle not necessarily related to how someone actually
has treated you in the past. This golden rule can be found in many
cultures and civilizations, philosophical and religious teachings,
including those of Confucius, Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed and Kant.
Over the past decade, there has been an attempt to draw up a
Declaration of a Global Ethic, a statement of principles that are
universally accepted across all cultures. One version begins with
the fundamental demand that every human being must be treated
humanely and refers to the Golden Rule as the irrevocable,
unconditional norm for all areas of life.
These universally accepted ethical standards will not be the
kind of thing that political leaders can draw on to show that they
are justified in intervening in the affairs of another state. If a
religious population of a nation supports a monarch ruling in
accordance with the laws of the dominant religion, and the citizens
support the golden rule because the religion does, but are opposed
to the idea of democracy. What grounds do we have to tell them to
become a democracy?
If said regime is not engaging in genocide or other crimes
against humanity, the question of intervention doesn't even arise.
Second, if the people prefer this form of government, the
preference ought to be testable, they should be able to vote not to
have open elections for political office, which could be seen as a
sign of legitimacy to the non-democratic regime.
The ultimate question of the relationship between democracy and
sovereignty has not been solved. Reforming the United Nations
(p.144)
The UN should authorize intervention to stop crimes against
humanity, without doing greater harm than it prevents. This
suggests a duty to intervene in appropriate circumstances. There is
a trend towards democratic sovereignty, however, the UN itself
isn't democratic. The Security Council is made up of the victors of
WW2 (US, UK, France, Russia, China) which have veto-rights for
intervention (which is why the UN didn't do anything about
Vietnam). In order to make it more democratic, they should
introduce the qualified majority (2/3rd or 3/4th of the vote). The
structure of the Security Council is a constant reminder that the
institutions of global governance are dominated by the wealthiest
and most powerful states. However, political realism requires
allowing such superpowers a veto, because going against the wishes
of either the US, Russia or China, isn't a smart thing to do.
The General Assembly of United Nations, composed of 189 members,
is more democratic, but can only take action in more limited
circumstances. But as in the WTO, India has the same number of
votes as Iceland. It is possible for a majority of 95 states
representing 198.5 million people to outvote the 94 states
representing 5.7 billion. There is an option to make it more
democratic, which is direct representation through elections. The
EU has the same system, with a very limited jurisdiction (eds:
remember, book is written in 2002). The General Assembly could be
transformed into a democratically elected World Assembly.
Another option is to allocate delegates in proportion to their
population. The UN would supervise democratic electinos in every
member nation to elect this delegation. A country that refuses UN
supervision would only get one delegate, irrespective of its
population. This would provide experience in democracy for citizens
in non-democratic countries, and would retain the inclusive
character of the UN.Summing Up: National Sovereignty and a Global
Ethic (p.148)
A global ethic should not stop at national boundaries. National
sovereignty has no intrinsic moral weight. The weight it does have
comes from an international principle requiring respect for
national sovereignty in promoting peaceful relationships between
states. Respect for international law is vital, but is evolving in
the direction of a stronger global community. We have the
responsibility to protect in stead of the right to intervene. The
limits of the state's ability and and willingness to protect its
people are also the limits of its sovereignty. Only the UN should
have the responsibility to protect. Otherwise, nations will meddle
in conflicts and plunge the world into international conflict. If
states can accept the UN as the protector of last resort of people
whose states are flagrantly failing to protect them, the world will
have taken a crucial step toward becoming a global ethical
communityChapter 5: One Communitypage 150 195Human Equality: Theory
and Practice (p.150)
After 9/11, 1,3 billion $ was raised for the families of
victims. However, the allocation of resources was acknowledged by
the Red Cross as going to people who did not need it. Even worse,
even on that day, ~30.000 children died from preventable causes,
ten times the amount of people killed during the attacks. For most
people, the circle of concern for others stops at the boundaries of
their own nation. They take it for granted that national boundaries
carry moral weight. Can we reconsile this attitude with the
attitude that every human being is equal? A Preference for Our Own
(p.153)
There are many who think it is self-evident that we have special
obligation to those nearer to us. Reflecting on preference's for
one's own kind should subert the belief that this kind of
self-evidence is a sufficient ground for accepting a view as right.
What is self-evident to some is not at all to others. Instead, we
need another test of whether we have special obligations to those
closer to us, such as our compatriots.
Ethics and Impartiality (p.154)How can we decide whether we have
special obligations to our own kinds, and if so, who is our own
kind in te relevant sense? One way is to ask whether accepting the
idea of having these special duties can itself be justified from an
impartial perspective.
No one has disputed the claim in respect that distance shouldn't
matter in saving a life, be it 10 meter or 10.000 kilometer.
However, the degree of certainty we can have that our assistance
will get to the right person may be affected by distance. What
people have disputed though, is that our obligation to help a
stranger in another country is as great as the obligation to help
one of our own neighbours.
Utilitarianism argues that in everyday life it will often be too
difficult to work out the consequences of every decision we make,
and if we were to try to do so, we would risk getting it wrong
because of our personal involvement and the pressures of the
situation. We should reflect on the nature of our moral intuitions,
and ask whether we have developed the right ones, the ones that
will lead to the greatest good, impartially considered.
Assessing Partial Preferences (p.160)
The first set of preferences, towards one's own children, may be
rooted in our nature as social mammals with offspring who are very
dependent on their parents. Bonds between mother and child are
found in all human cultures. This does not mean that it can't be
changed, nor does it mean that it should not be changed.
Initiatives to communaly bring up children have been proven
unsuccesful. Any attempt to eradicate favoritism between parents
and children would have high costs and would require constant
supervision or coercion. The gains arising from diminished
partiality for one's own children is highly unlikely to outweigh
loss (unhappiness). The care of loving parents is likely to be
better than by impartial guardians.
Visiting a sick friend in a hospital should be about visting a
friend, who is sick and in a hospital, not about a cold calculation
between spending your time the most profitable way. This is the
point of two-level utilitarianism to explain why we should have an
extra thought when we are thinking at the critical level, but not
at the level of everyday moral decision-making.The Ethical
Significance of the Nation-State (p.167)Compatriots as Extended Kin
(p.167)
What impartial reasons can there be for favoring one's
compatriots over foreigners? On some views of nationality, being a
member of the same nation is like an extended version of being kin.
German laws (pre-2000) recognized Germans who hadn't been living in
Germany for generations with the right to 'return', whereas foreign
guest workers could live in Germany for decades without eligibility
to become citizen, as were their children, born in Germany.
If we reject the idea that we should give preference to members
of one's own race it is difficult to defend the intuition that we
should favor our fellow citizens, in the sense in which citizenship
is seen as a kind of extended kinship, because all citizens are of
the same ethnicity or race. The two are simply too close.A
Community of Reciprocity (p.168)
What if we empty all racist elements from the idea of who our
fellow citizens are? Post 9/11 reaction was based on the sense that
Americans will help each other in times of crisis. If we for
instance deny admission to refugees, it hardly seems fair to then
turn around and discriminate against them when we make decision
about whom we will aid, on the grounds that they are not members of
our community and have no reciprocal relationships with us.The
Imagined Community (p.170)
If reciprocity is not enough to show why we have a significantly
stronger obligation to our fellow citizens than to anyone else, one
might try to supplement this idea by recourse to the account of a
nation as an imagined political community, one that lives only in
the minds of those who see themselves as citizens of the same
nation. This makes up for a lack of a real, face-to-face community
in which there would be personal ties between citizens.
Acknowledging special obligations to other members can be seen as
part of what it takes to form and maintain this imagined
community.
If this notion of a nation as an imagined community, it is also
possible for us to imagina ourselves as part of another community.
Our problems are now too intertwined to be well resolved in a
system consisting of nation-states and near exclusive loyalty to
their own nation-state rather than to the larger global community.
The Efficiency of Nations (p.171)
Robert Goodin argues that it is better to have one state that is
clearly responsible for protecting and promoting the interests of
every individual within its territory. However, efficiency in
administration within units is one thing, and the distribution of
resources between units is one thing. Therefore, Goodin proposes
reallocation of resources.
Justice Within States and Between States (p.172)
Christopher Wellman has suggested three further impartial
reasons for thinking that it may be particularly important to
prevent economic inequality from becoming too great within a
society, rather than between societies. The first is that political
equality within a society may be adversely affected by economic
inequality within a society, but not adversely affected by economic
inequality between societies. The second is that inequality is not
something that is bad in itself, but rather something that is bad
in so far as it leads to oppressive relationships, and hence we are
right to be more concerned about inequality among people living in
the same nation than we are about inequality between people living
in different countries who are not in a meaningful relationship
with each other. The third is a point about the comparative nature
of wealth and poverty; a Mississippi man wouldn't compare himself
with a New Yorker. However, a Mexican looks at the US and sees an
opportunity to improve his conditions.
In the present situation we have duties to foreigners that
override duties to our fellow citizens. Even if inequality is often
relative, the state of absolute poverty is a state that is not
relative to someone else's wealth. Reducing the number of humans
living in this state is a more urgent priority than reducing the
relative poverty caused by some people living in palaces while
others live in cottages.Rawls and 'The Law of Peoples' (p.176)
The most influential work on justice written in 20th century US,
Rawls A Theory of Justice, does not address the issue of justice
between societies. With The Law of Peoples, Rawls at last addressed
himself to the issue. He believes well-off societies have
significant obligation toward struggling societies, but there is a
lack of focus on obligations toward individuals who are currently
destitute in other countries. His positions in his two books can't
be reconciled. In the earlier work the deliberating parties in the
'original position' weigh up alternative principles of justice,
such as classical utilitarianism and moral perfectionism, and
choose between them. In The Law of Peoples, the deliberating
parties (whose task now is to decide on a framework for
international relationships) do not even consider classical
utilitarianism as a possible principle by which they might regulate
the way in which peoples behave toward each other. This is because,
Rawls states:
A classical, or average, utilitarian principle would not be
accepted by peoples, since no people organized by its government is
prepared to count, as a first principle, the benefits for another
people as outweighing the hardships imposed on itself.This claim is
true at the level of sociological description of peoples organized
as governments in existing societies (eds: democracy government =
chosen by a population, therefore the government needs to work for
said population in order to stay in power). But Rawls rules out the
possibility of people accepting this principle in the future, if
they were choosing impartially. Another strange aspect is Rawls's
readiness to invoke, against the idea of economic redistribution
between nations, arguments that could easily be brought against
economic redistribution between individuals or families within the
same nation.
He does urge that well-ordered peoples have a duty to assist
burdened societies, those that lack the political and cultural
traditions, the human capital and know-how, and, often, the
material and technological resources needed to be well-ordered.
This duty extends only to the requirement of assistance to help the
societies to become well-ordered, by which he means a society that
is designed to advance the good of its members and is effectively
regulated by a public conception of justice. Something Rawls sees
as beneficial is a change of culture, because he sees no nations
with resources so scarce that it could not become well-ordered.
Rawls states he shares Beitz and Pogge's goals of attaining
liberal or decent institutions, securing human rights and meeting
basic needs but [those goals] are covered by the duty of
assistance. Critics state Rawls is more concerned with the
legitimacy of global coercion than he is with the arbitrariness of
the fates of citizens of different countries. Economic concerns for
individuals play no role in Rawls's laws for regulating
international relations. He covers no options for the billion
people living in poverty.The Reality (p.180)
Subjected to the test of impartial assessment, there are strong
grounds for giving preference to the interests of fellow citizens.
Therefore, foreign aid is something that should concern citizens of
the developed world. The UN put up a target of .7% of the GDP. A
handful nations do this (Denmark, Sweden, Norway and The
Netherlands (eds: represent motherfucker! :D)). Many nations fail
to meet this target; Japan gives .27% (13.5 billion $), the US .1%
(10 billion $). The US uses foreign aid mainly as a political
means, the biggest receiver is Egypt (Russia and Israel get more,
but isn't classified as development assistance). Bosnia and
Herzegovina get more than India. Only 25% of US aid goes to
low-income countries, 2.5 billion. US Defense has a (2003) budget
of 379 billion $ which is almost 40x as much.
These facts are consistent with the claim at the start of this
chapter: despite the lip-service most people pay to human equality,
their circle of concern barely extends beyond the boundary of their
country. Surveys point out that US citizens are misinformed about
their government spending, 60% of the people thinking it is 10-20%
of the GDP. These citizens would want to 'cut' foreign aid spending
to 5% of the GDP. What people would really do if given the chance
to vote is unknown, foreign aid has never been a major policy issue
in the US. America's failure to pull its weight in the fight
against poverty is therefore due not only to the ignorance of the
American public, but also to the moral deficiencies of its
political leaders.An Ethical Challenge (p.185)
If the developed world keeps neglecting foreign aid, what should
the citizens of those rich countries do? We are not powerless to
act on our own. We can take practical steps to expand our concern
across national boundaries by supporting organizations working to
aid those in need, wherever they may be. But how much should we
give?
Thomas Aquinas concluded: whatever a man has in superabundance
is owed, of natural right, to the poor for their sustenance. But
how much is enough? Unger calculated that it takes 200$ to save a
child from diseases. What is keeping us from doing so? Is it the
practical uncertainties about whether aid will really reach the
people who need it? Nobody can doubt that such uncertainties exist.
But Unger accounted for this in his calculation. Is there some
'follow-the-crowd' ethics in place (the kind of thics that led many
Germans to look away when the Nazi atrocities were being
committed). We do not excuse them because others were behaving no
better.
Some critics say there is an empirical question to be answered:
How much will each additional dollar of aid, given by me or my
government, contribute to the long-term well-being of people in
areas receiving that aid? We must look beyond saving life, to how
the lives that are saved will be lived, to see if we have some
reason to believe that saving the child will do more than
perpetuate the cycle of poverty, misery, and high infant
mortality.
A World Bank study finds that when a poor country with good
management is given aid equivalent to 1% of its GDP, poverty and
infant mortality falls by 1%. A more recent World Bank study finds
that these numbers are improving. In 1990, $1 billion saved 105,000
people, by 1998 the same amount saved 284,000 from poverty.
Government foreign aid has often not been aimed at reducing
poverty. US, France and Japan direct their aid not to those
countries where it would be most effective in fostering growth and
reducing poverty, but to countries where aid will further their own
strategic or cultural interests. The US to its friends in the
Middle East (eds: until Arab Spring), Japan aids countries that
vote in a specific way in the UN, France pays former colonies.
Nordic countries are the exception, they pay the poorest countries
that have reasonably good governments that will not misuse their
resources.
We might, among ourselves, feel that we should forgo all
'superabundance' in order to help those who are unable to provide
for their bare subsistence, whereas in public we might decide to
advocate whatever level of giving we believe will yield the
greatest amount of assistance, while not making people feel that
morality is so demanding that they will disregard it. The target of
money being raised needs to make sense to people.
One way of looking at how much we might suggest that people
should give is to suppose that the task of eliminating poverty in
the world were fairly distributed among all of the 900 million
people in high-income countries. How much would each of them have
to give? The World Bank estimates a total of $40 to $60 billion per
year to achieve the development goals set at the UN Millennium
Summit (poverty and hunger halved by 2015). This amounts to an
annual fee of ~100$ per adult. For someone earning $27,500 (average
earning), this is less than .4%. Not everyone in a rich country
makes that sum though. We could therefore advocate that, after
meeting their basic needs, people need to contribute a minimum of
.4% of their income to organisations working for the poorest.
However, .4% is not a memorable amount. 1% is, and could very
well be the amount needed to eliminate poverty rather than halving
it. Those who do not meet this standard should be seen as failing
to meet their fair share of a global responsibility, and therefore
as doing something that is seriously morally wrong. This is the
minimum, not the optimal, donation. Those who think carefully about
their ethical obligations will realize that (since not everyone
will contribute their part) they should do far more.
The $5 billion increase in foreign aid over three years promised
by GW Bush is seen by some as a token gesture instead of something
that could succesfully impact most of the poor countries. By
contrast, all it would take to put the world on track to eliminate
global poverty much faster than the Millennium Summit targets would
be the modest sum of 1% of annual income if anyone who could afford
it were to give it. That tells us how far we still are from having
an ethic that is based not on national boundaries, but on the idea
of one world.Chapter 6: A Better World?Page 196 201In the fifth
century BC, the Chinese philosopher Mozi asked and answered as
question: What is the way of universal love and mutual benefit? It
is to regard other people's countries as one's own. Greek Diogenes,
when asked from what country he was from, said: I am a citizen of
the world. John Lennon sang Imagine there's no countries, Imagine
all the people, Sharing all the world (eds: John Lennon also hit
his first wife).
Up until recently, these were the thoughts of idealists, but
lately we have grown to be a global community. Almost all nations
have agreed on binding their greenhouse gas emissions. The WTO,
World Bank and IMF are global institutions that try to take on some
functions of global economic governance. An International Criminal
Court is giving the world justice. Changing views on military
intervention for humanitarian purposes show we are in the process
of developing a global community, prepared to take on
responsibilities to protect the citizens of states that can or will
not protect them from harm or death.The World's leaders have
recognized that relieving the plight of the world's poorest nations
is a global responsibility, although their deeds are yet to match
their words.
When different nations led more separate lives, it was more
understandable for citizens to think they owed no obligation to
help foreigners. The Treaty of Westphalia (1648) was the hallmark
of state sovereignty, until nations started to fight again. Though
we may look back with nostalgia, we should not regret its passing.
Instead we should be developing the ethical foundations of the
coming era of a single world community.
There is one great obstacle to further progress in this
direction. Participation of the US in many agreements (Greenhouse
gasses, International court, foreign aid, etc) is holding us back.
It will probably be shamed into joining in. If it does not, it
risks falling into a situation in which it is universally seen by
everyone (except Americans) as the world's rogue superpower. If the
US wants support from other nations in, for instance, its war on
terror, it cannot afford to be seen that way.
As more and more issues increasingly demand global solutions,
the extent to which any state can independently determine its
future diminishes. Institutions for global decision-making
therefore need to be strengthened. This leeds to a direction of a
directly elected global legislature, along the lines of the EU.
There is however little support for such ideas at present. At
worst, it would become a global tyranny, unchecked and
unchallengeable. How to prevent global bodies becoming either
dangerous tyrannies or self-aggrandizing bureaucracies is a serious
question. The EU has the principle of subsidiarity (decisions
should always be made at the lowest level capable of dealing with
the problem), which is still being tested but if proven effective
it could work for the global community.
To rush into world federalism would be too risky, but we could
accept the diminishing significance of national boundaries and take
a pragmatic, step by step approach to greater global governance.
There is a good case for global environmental and labor
standards.
The 21st century faces the task of developing a suitable form of
government for a single world. It is a daunting moral and
intellectual challenge, but one we cannot refuse to take up. The
future of the world depends on how well we meet it.