Refugee Policy and the Limits of Liberal Universalism
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Refugee Policy and the Limits of Liberal Universalism by Christina Boswell Thesis submitted in fulfilment of a Ph.D in International Relations London School of Economics and Political Science Department of International Relations 2001 UMI Number: U166533 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U166533 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 7 £32 POLITICAL AND 7^62 2. Acknowledgements My thanks go to a number of people who read and commented on parts of the thesis: Erica Benner, Jill Boswell, Christian Heine, Maria Lensu, Jacob Nell and Raj Patel, as well as participants of the LSE International Political Theory research seminar, 1997-9, who provided a rigorous and stimulating forum for discussion of the issues. I owe a special debt of thanks to John Charvet, whose insights and encouragement were invaluable; and to my supervisor James Mayall for intellectual and practical support throughout the whole process. Stefan Fritz, Christian Heine, Eric Morris and ESRC all provided practical help of various kinds. Finally, I am grateful to examiners Chris Brown and Andrew Linklater for their excellent comments. 2 A b str a c t This thesis aims to construct a conceptual framework for characterising the relationship between duties to refugees and duties to fellow nationals. The need for such a framework is generated by the current impasse on the policy debate about the nature and scope of refugee rights. The thesis examines a range of liberal political theories to see if they can provide an adequate account, evaluating them on three criteria: normative desirability; practical feasibility; and internal coherence. The discussion criticises liberal theories on two levels. Firstly, it shows how liberal universalist theories raise a problem of moral motivation: they impose overly stringent ethical demands, and risk being counter-productive. Attempts to incorporate some notion of the significance of national ties or to justify a national social contract simply produce an incoherent amalgam of universalist and particularist premises. Secondly, the thesis argues that these problems reflect a more profound weakness in liberal theories of moral agency and motivation. Liberal theory relies on an assumed dichotomy between a personal and an impartial perspective. The moral agent is assumed to abstract from her personal characteristics to adopt an “ethical” view-point. This notion of impartiality is descriptively implausible, and produces a highly problematic rationalist theory of motivation. The thesis argues instead for an account that sees the agent as motivated by her personal disposition and community values to respect refugee rights. On this account there is no necessary conflict between particularism and duties to non-nationals. I develop this non-rationalist account by providing (1) a philosophical theory of motivation; substantiated by (2) a theory of the psychology of moral development. The thesis shows how this non-rationalist account is consistent with a substantive commitment to universal duties. Moreover, it fulfils the two additional criteria of internal coherence and feasibility, thus providing a superior conception of the relationship between duties to compatriots and to refugees. 3 Table of Contents Introduction 6 1. The Crisis in International Refugee Policy and Liberal Universalism 6 2. Method of Analysis 25 3. Outline of the Argument 31 PART I - CRITIQUE OF LIBERAL UNIVERSALISM 1. The Origins of the Crisis in Refugee Policy 36 1. Origins of the Refugee Crisis in Political Thought 37 2. Universal Rights, National Interests and Responses to Refugee Influx 50 3. Reconsidering Liberal Universalist Conceptions of Duties to Refugees 65 2. Liberal Universalism and the Problem of Feasibility 68 1. Refugees and Liberal Political Theory 69 2. Maximising Utility 73 3. Alleviating Suffering 82 4. Right-Based Universalism 90 3. Thin Universalism and the Problem of Internal Coherence 101 1. Basic Rights Theories 102 2. Particularism and Basic Rights 113 3. The Limits of Ethical Obligation 120 4. The Dichotomy between Impartial and Personal Perspectives 125 4. Social Contract Theory and Moral Motivation 130 1. The Goals of Social Contract Theory 131 2. Hobbesian Theories: Deriving Duty from Interest 134 3. Rawls and Justice as Fairness 141 4. Justice as Impartiality 154 5. The Limits of Liberal Universalism 165 4 PART II - CONSTRUCTING A NON-RATIONALIST ACCOUNT 5. The Role of Reason in Moral Motivation 170 1. Reason and Moral Motivation in Kantian Thought 172 2. The Humean Alternative and Charvet’s Interdependence Thesis 184 3. The Role of Reason in Defining Morality 193 4. Reason in Morality and Motivation 206 6. The Psychology of Moral Development 209 1. Psychology and Moral Motivation 211 2. The Cognitive Developmental Account 216 3. Psycho-Analytic Theory and the Other-Regarding Self 225 4. Internalising Intersubjective Norms 241 7. Community and Universal Duties 250 1. The Communitarian Thesis 251 2. The Status of Universal Duties 262 3. Moral Alienation and Internal Critique of Liberal Universalism 277 4. Conclusion: Motivating Universal Duties 282 Conclusion 285 1. Summary of the Argument 285 2. Implications for Refugee Policy 293 3. Conflict between Refugee Rights and National Interests 304 Bibliography 308 5 Introduction 1. The Crisis in International Refugee Policy International refugee policy appears to be facing a crisis: an escalation in the level of refugee flows, accompanied by an increased reluctance of states to grant asylum to large numbers of refugees.1 Most commentators characterise the crisis as a conflict between refugee rights and national interests, especially in cases of mass refugee influx. Granting asylum to large numbers of refugees is considered to impose a financial and political burden on receiving states, running directly counter to their national interest. The crisis in refugee policy has cast doubt on the adequacy of current international legal provisions for protecting the rights of refugees. These provisions oblige states to respect a range of rights and standards for asylum-seekers and those with refugee status.2 The crisis also challenges the feasibility of recognising duties to respect the rights of those beyond borders. These moral duties are perceived by many to impose overly stringent requirements on states which are not realisable under current economic and political circumstances - especially not where they require absorbing large numbers of non-nationals. Most of those defending refugee rights against this attack invoke liberal 1 The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that there are around 50 million refugees and displaced persons world-wide. See UNHCR, The State o f the W orld’s Refugees: A Humanitarian Agenda (Oxford and N ew York: Oxford University Press, 1997), p. 2; and Refugees and Others of Concern to UNHCR: 1999 Statistical Overview (http://www.unhcr.ch/statist/99oviewtoc.htm). Moreover, as UNHCR writes, “It can be predicted with some degree of certainty that states will prove increasingly reluctant to open their borders to refugees and to provide them with effective protection.... [T]he exclusionary attitude of states is now firmly established in both richer and poorer regions of the world.” UNHCR, State o f the World's Refugees (ibid.), p. 264. 2 The most important instruments are the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (Geneva, 28 July 1951 (189 UNTS 137)) and its 1967 Protocol (New York, 31 January, 1967 (606 UNTS 267)); but there are also a range of “soft law” provisions, notably United Nations General Assembly Resolutions, and Conclusions of the UNHCR Executive Committee. For good overviews of these provisions, see James C. Hathaway,The Law of Refugee Status (Toronto and Vancouver: Butterworths, 1991); and Guy S. Goodwin-Gill,The Refugee in International Law (Oxford: Clarendon, 1996). 6 universalist arguments to justify their claims about duties to refugees. Liberal universalism provides an accessible and cogent grounding for theories of duties to non-nationals, and its assumptions about the moral equality of human-beings deeply pervade moral and political discourse in liberal democratic societies. It is not surprising, then, that liberal universalist theories have a virtual monopoly on arguments for admitting greater numbers of refugees, and more generally for recognising moral duties beyond borders. Yet despite this apparent facility for justifying refugee rights, liberal universalist theories are ill-equipped to provide an account of the relationship between duties to refugees and duties to fellow nationals. These theories have problems accounting for the significance of membership in particular states or communities. Starting from a premise of the moral equality of all individuals, pure liberal universalism denies the moral relevance of nationality and other characteristics that are not universally shared. And - unless liberal theorists can find practical or instrumental