World Poverty and Human Rights / Edition 2

by Thomas W. Pogge

Overview

Some 2.5 billion human beings live in severe poverty, deprived of such essentials as adequate nutrition, safe drinking water, basic sanitation, adequate shelter, literacy, and basic health care. One-third of all human deaths are from poverty-related causes: 18 million annually, including over 10 million children under five.

However huge in human terms, the world poverty problem is tiny economically. Just 1 percent of the national incomes of the high-income countries would suffice to end severe poverty worldwide. Yet, these countries, unwilling to bear an opportunity cost of this magnitude, continue to impose a grievously unjust global institutional order that foreseeably and avoidably perpetuates the catastrophe. Most citizens of affluent countries believe that we are doing nothing wrong.

Thomas Pogge seeks to explain how this belief is sustained. He analyzed how our moral and economic theorizing and our global economic order have adapted to make us appear disconnected from massive poverty abroad. Dispelling the illusion, he also offers a modest, widely sharable standard of global economic justice and makes detailed, realistic proposals toward fulfilling it. Thoroughly updated, the second edition of this classic book incorporates responses to critics and a new chapter on Pogge's current work on pharmaceutical patent reform.

About the Author:
Thomas Pogge is Professor of Philosophy and International Affairs at Yale University, Professorial Fellow in the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics at the Australian National University, Research Director in the Centre for the Study of Mind in Nature at the University of Oslo, and Adjunct Professor in the Centrefor Professional Ethics at the University of Central Lancashire

Product Details

ISBN-13:	2900745641446
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	02/26/2008
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.02(w) x 9.02(h) x 1.12(d)

About the Author

Thomas Pogge is Professor of Philosophy and International Affairs at Yale University, Professorial Fellow in the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics at the Australian National University, Research Director in the Centre for the Study of Mind in Nature at the University of Oslo, and Adjunct Professor in the Centre for Professional Ethics at the University of Central Lancashire.

Table of Contents

General Introduction     1
Some cautions about our moral judgments     2
Four easy reasons to ignore world poverty     7
Sophisticated defenses of our acquiescence in world poverty     13
Does our new global economic order really not harm the poor?     18
Responsibilities and reforms     26
Human Flourishing and Universal Justice     33
Introduction     33
Social justice     37
Paternalism     40
Justice in first approximation     43
Essential refinements     45
Human rights     50
Specification of human rights and responsibilities for their realization     54
Conclusion     56
How Should Human Rights be Conceived?     58
Introduction     58
From natural law to rights     60
From natural rights to human rights     62
Official disrespect     65
The libertarian critique of social and economic rights     70
The critique of social and economic rights as "manifesto rights"     73
Disputes about kinds of human rights     75
Loopholes in Moralities     77
Introduction     77
Types of incentives     79
Loopholes     81
Social arrangements     82
Case 1: the converted apartment building     83
Case 2: the homelands policy of white South Africa     86
An objection     88
Strengthening     89
Fictional histories     91
Puzzles of equivalence     93
Conclusion     95
Moral Universalism and Global Economic Justice     97
Introduction     97
Moral universalism     98
Our moral assessments of national and global economic orders     100
Some factual background about the global economic order     102
Conceptions of national and global economic justice contrasted     106
Moral universalism and David Miller's contextualism     108
Contextualist moral universalism and John Rawls's moral conception     110
Rationalizing divergent moral assessments through a double standard     114
Rationalizing divergent moral assessments without a double standard     116
The causal role of global institutions in the persistence of severe poverty     118
Conclusion     122
The Bounds of Nationalism     124
Introduction     124
Common nationalism: priority for the interests of compatriots     126
Lofty nationalism: the justice-for-compatriots priority     135
Explanatory nationalism: the deep significance of national borders     145
Conclusion     150
Achieving Democracy     152
Introduction     152
The structure of the problem faced by fledgling democracies     154
Reducing the expected rewards of coups d'etat     158
Undermining the borrowing privilege of authoritarian predators     159
Undermining the resource privilege of authoritarian predators     168
Conclusion     173
Cosmopolitanism and Sovereignty     174
Introduction     174
Institutional cosmopolitanism based on human rights     175
The idea of state sovereignty     183
Some main reasons for a vertical dispersal of sovereignty     187
The shaping and reshaping of political units     196
Conclusion     201
Eradicating Systemic Poverty: Brief for a Global Resources Dividend     202
Introduction     202
Radical inequality and our responsibility     203
Three grounds of injustice     205
A moderate proposal     210
The moral argument for the proposed reform     214
Is the reform proposal realistic?     216
Conclusion     220
Pharmaceutical Innovation: Must We Exclude the Poor?     222
Introduction     222
The TRIPS Agreement and its aftermath     224
The argument from beneficial consequences     230
Toward a better way of stimulating research and development of essential medicines     236
Differential pricing     238
The public-good strategy for extending access to essential medicines     240
A full-pull plan for the provision of pharmaceuticals     244
Specifying and implementing the basic full-pull idea     253
Justifying the plan to affluent citizens and their representatives     256
Last Words     262
Notes     265
Bibliography     314
Index     328

Editorial Reviews

"One of the most intellectually rigorous and empirically well-informed works of political philosophy yet written on world poverty. (A) brilliant work."
James Grant, Australian Journal of Political Science

"A triumph of cosmopolitan argumentation for a global system of justice. This book has been, and will remain, a standard for all students of poverty and human rights."
Human Rights Review

"If only everyone living in affluent nations were to read World Poverty and Human Rights! Pogge's combination of rigorous moral argument and judicious use of the relevant facts compels us to acknowledge that the existing global economic order is ethically indefensible. A wonderful book that could do an immense amount of good."
Peter Singer

"One of the very best books known to me on global inequality, the most important moral problem facing the world today. Pogge shows convincingly how we, and the institutions we support, can best try to make the present world order less unjust. These proposals combine, in a remarkable way, moral depth, clear thinking, inventiveness, and practical good sense."
Derek Parfit, All Souls College, Oxford

"Pogge's gift is to recognize as imaginary the boundaries between economics and ethics. A striking example is the historically derived and currently dysfunctional way we apply patents for medicines. With simplicity and clarity, Pogge offers an analysis without villains, a remedy without losers and a practical path to fundamental reform."
Carl Nathan, Cornell University

From the Publisher