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Global Poverty, Structural Injustice and Obligations to Take Political Action

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Global Poverty, Structural Injustice and Obligations to Take Political Action Global Poverty, Structural Injustice and Obligations to take Political Action Elizabeth Kahn MA MLitt PhD Thesis University Of York Department of Politics August 2013 1 Abstract This work considers the moral obligations agents have in relation to global poverty. Utilising a practical ethics approach, it aims to provide an account of obligation that is explicitly political. It proposes that moral decency requires agents to be concerned with the justice of the social structures to which they contribute. Unjust social structures are treated as the aggregative effect of many human actions and institutions. The thesis argues that poverty indicates injustice in these structures. It proposes that those who make on-going contributions to these structures have an obligation to make reasonable efforts to prevent injustice in them. It explains that these efforts are required as a necessary precaution to avoid contributing to essentially aggregative harm. The interconnectedness of global economies means that actions and practices in one state can have a dramatic effect on the conditions faced by residents of another state. Currently a significant portion of the world’s population lives in social conditions where they are vulnerable to serious deprivation and domination. The thesis argues that the combined effect of these facts and the norm elucidated above is that agents around the world have an obligation to work together to prevent the continuance of this situation. It argues that each individual has an obligation to make efforts to form a collective to prevent structural injustice as a precaution against contributing to structural injustice. The original contribution of this thesis is to propose that there are precautionary duties in relation to global poverty. These duties require agents to work together with others through political action to alter the structures that give rise to global poverty. The aim of this thesis is to establish this obligation, define its meaning, and defend it against various challenges. 2 Table of Contents Abstract ..................................................................................................................... 1 Table of Contents ...................................................................................................... 3 Preface ...................................................................................................................... 7 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................... 9 Author’s Declaration ............................................................................................... 11 Introduction: Global Poverty, Injustice and Obligation to take Political Action ..... 12 Motivation........................................................................................................... 16 Reforming Moral Obligations for an Interconnected World .......................... 16 Political Engagement ....................................................................................... 18 Method ............................................................................................................... 21 Practical Ethics ................................................................................................ 21 Moral Reasoning ............................................................................................. 25 Contractualism ................................................................................................ 29 Structure ......................................................................................................... 31 Part 1: Poverty and Obligation ................................................................................ 33 Chapter 1: Singer’s Humanitarianism and the Need for a Political Approach .... 34 Overdemandingness ....................................................................................... 40 Additional Obligations ..................................................................................... 43 Critiques of the Aid Based Approach .............................................................. 45 Conclusions ..................................................................................................... 54 Chapter 2: Political Cosmopolitanism, Poverty and Obligation .......................... 56 Humanity Based Cosmopolitanism ................................................................. 58 Institutional Cosmopolitanism ........................................................................ 63 Are Global or National Institutions Responsible for Poverty? ........................ 70 Multiple Forms of Injustice and Multiple Obligations of Justice .................... 79 Structural Injustice .......................................................................................... 81 Structural Injustice and Obligation ................................................................. 83 3 Part 2: Structural Injustice and Precautionary Obligations..................................... 94 Chapter 3: Social Structure as a Site of Injustice ................................................ 95 Coercion as the Site of Injustice ...................................................................... 96 Institutions as the Subject of Justice ............................................................. 102 What should be included in the institutional order? .................................... 107 Social Structure as a Site of Injustice ............................................................ 117 Review ........................................................................................................... 129 Chapter 4: The Requirements of Social Structural Justice ................................ 131 Avoiding a Comprehensive Account of Social Structural Justice .................. 132 Human Rights and Global Poverty ................................................................ 136 Institutions for Establishing Just Social Structures ....................................... 140 Weighing the Case for Global Institutions .................................................... 152 Chapter 5: Obligations and Structural Injustice ................................................ 155 Individual Obligations to Aid the Victims of Structural Injustice .................. 156 Collective Action and Positive Obligations .................................................... 159 Structural Injustice and Negative Duties ...................................................... 163 Essentially Aggregative Harm........................................................................ 169 Taking Precautions ........................................................................................ 174 Problem: Who is Included in the Aggregate? ............................................... 176 Problem: Can there be Unavoidable Precautions? ....................................... 179 Problem: Is it Wise to Regulate Social Structures? ....................................... 183 Conclusion ..................................................................................................... 188 Chapter 6: Poverty, Structural Injustice and Collective Action Strategies ........ 191 Precautionary Duties and Poverty ................................................................ 191 Collective Action to Alter Social Structures .................................................. 196 Collective Action to Alleviate the Structural Injustice Experienced by Apparel Workers ......................................................................................................... 204 Limits of Legitimacy ...................................................................................... 206 The Extent of the Efforts Required ............................................................... 207 4 Conclusion ..................................................................................................... 212 Part 3: Objections ................................................................................................. 214 Chapter 7: Apathy ............................................................................................. 215 Is the Global Population Apathetic? ............................................................. 216 Fairness and Problems with Obligations to Make Efforts When Others Do Not ...................................................................................................................... 217 Rejecting the Obligation on the Basis that it is Unlikely to Work ................. 218 Conclusion ..................................................................................................... 232 Chapter 8: Inconsequentialism ......................................................................... 235 Inconsequentialism and Contributing to Structural Injustice ....................... 237 Inconsequentialism and Obligations to take part in Collective Action ......... 246 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 261 Review of the Argument ................................................................................... 261 Contribution to the Literature .......................................................................... 263 Negative Duties in Relation to Structural Injustice ....................................... 263 Ex ante Precautionary Duties .......................................................................
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