Global Poverty - a responsibility of the West? A look at Thomas Pogge's argument

Global Poverty - a responsibility of the West? A look at Thomas Pogge's argument PDF Author: Ignas Rekasius
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 366837757X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 10

Book Description
Essay from the year 2016 in the subject Politics - Political Theory and the History of Ideas Journal, grade: A, University of Dundee, course: Theorising Politics, language: English, abstract: The 25th Article of the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights declares each human being as having the right to “a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family,” which comprises of food, clothing, housing and medical care amongst others (UN General Assembly, 1948). For over 767 million people today, or a tenth of the world’s population located primarily in the Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, those rights are being taken away, further undermining the ability to pursue other basic civil and political rights as a consequence. For long, the eradication of global poverty has been at the forefront of political discussion amongst the political philosophers and cosmopolitan internationalists of the developed nations. The gap between the rich and the poor in wealthy and yet rapidly growing societies such as the United States, Brazil or China has widened immensely in the aftermath of the global economic recession of 2008. Although the socialist revolutionary ideas portrayed in Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign in 2016 escalated populous grievances about the growing economic inequality and political lobbying, the policies of the wealthy nations fail to address the scale of global poverty within their foreign policy agenda. There are numerous reasons why the West should take responsibility for global poverty. Perhaps the most influential and challenging political philosopher on global justice and human rights, Thomas Pogge, believes that wealthy societies are to be held responsible for the global poverty due to shared history, resources and global economic order. While I agree with Thomas Pogge’s arguments that wealthy societies are to blame for the expanding global inequality and thus ought to be responsible for restoring equality, the nature of political development and social relations within each individual developing country, I believe, shall be taken into thorough consideration whilst eradicating poverty through grassroots decision-making.

World Poverty and Human Rights

World Poverty and Human Rights PDF Author: Thomas W. Pogge
Publisher: Polity
ISBN: 074564144X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 361

Book Description
Thomas Pogge tries to explain the attitude of affluent populations to world poverty. One or two per cent of the wealth of the richer nations could help in eradicating much of the poverty and Pogge presents a powerful moral argument.

Freedom from Poverty as a Human Right

Freedom from Poverty as a Human Right PDF Author: Thomas Pogge
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199226318
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 422

Book Description
Collected here are fifteen essays about the severe poverty that today afflicts billions of human lives. The essays seek to explain why freedom from poverty is a human right and what duties this right creates for the affluent. This volume derives from a UNESCO philosophy program organized in response to the first of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2000: 'to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger'.--Publisher's description.

Global Poverty and Individual Responsibility

Global Poverty and Individual Responsibility PDF Author: Abigail Gosselin
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 9780739122907
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 236

Book Description
Global poverty and responsibility -- Duties of beneficence -- Duties of redress -- Duties of institutional justice -- Responsibilities of affluent individuals.

Politics as Usual

Politics as Usual PDF Author: Thomas W. Pogge
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0745655424
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 274

Book Description
Worldwide, human lives are rapidly improving. Education, health-care, technology, and political participation are becoming ever more universal, empowering human beings everywhere to enjoy security, economic sufficiency, equal citizenship, and a life in dignity. To be sure, there are some specially difficult areas disfavoured by climate, geography, local diseases, unenlightened cultures or political tyranny. Here progress is slow, and there may be set-backs. But the affluent states and many international organizations are working steadily to extend the blessings of modernity through trade and generous development assistance, and it won't be long until the last pockets of severe oppression and poverty are gone. Heavily promoted by Western governments and media, this comforting view of the world is widely shared, at least among the affluent. Pogge's new book presents an alternative view: Poverty and oppression persist on a massive scale; political and economic inequalities are rising dramatically both intra-nationally and globally. The affluent states and the international organizations they control knowingly contribute greatly to these evils - selfishly promoting rules and policies harmful to the poor while hypocritically pretending to set and promote ambitious development goals. Pogge's case studies include the $1/day poverty measurement exercise, the cosmetic statistics behind the first Millennium Development Goal, the War on Terror, and the proposed relaxation of the constraints on humanitarian intervention. A powerful moral analysis that shows what Western states would do if they really cared about the values they profess.

Real World Justice

Real World Justice PDF Author: A. Follesdal
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9781402031410
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 424

Book Description
The concept of global justice makes visible how we citizens of affluent countries are potentially implicated in the horrors so many must endure in the so-called less developed countries. Distinct conceptions of global justice differ in their specific criteria of global justice. However, they agree that the touchstone is how well our global institutional order is doing, compared to its feasible alternatives, in regard to the fundamental human interests that matter from a moral point of view. We are responsible for global regimes such as the global trading system and the rules governing military interventions. These institutional arrangements affect human beings worldwide, for instance by shaping the options and incentives of governments and corporations. Alternative paths of globalization would have differed in how much violence, oppression, and extreme poverty they engender. And global institutional reforms could greatly enhance human rights fullfillment in the future. The importance of this global justice approach reaches well beyond philosophy. It enables ordinary citizens to understand their options and responsibility for global institutional factors, and it challenges social scientists to address the causes of poverty and hunger that act across borders. The present volume addresses four main topics regarding global justice: The normative grounds for claims regarding the global institutional order, the substantive normative principles for a legitimate global order, the roles of legal human rights standards, and some institutional arrangements that may make the present world order less unjust. All royalties from this book have been assigned to Oxfam.

Thomas Pogge and His Critics

Thomas Pogge and His Critics PDF Author: Alison Jaggar
Publisher: Polity
ISBN: 0745642586
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 283

Book Description
The political philosopher Thomas Pogge has emerged as one of the world's most ardent critics of global injustice. In this book Pogge's challenging and controversial ideas are debated by leading political philosophers from a range of philosophical viewpoints.

Globalizing Justice

Globalizing Justice PDF Author: Richard W. Miller
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199581983
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 350

Book Description
Governments, firms and people in developed countries, above all, the United States, by failing to live up to these responsibilities, take advantage of people in developing countries.

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Publisher:
ISBN: 0190905654
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

Book Description


Poverty and the Millennium Development Goals

Poverty and the Millennium Development Goals PDF Author: Alberto Cimadamore
Publisher: Zed Books Ltd.
ISBN: 1783606215
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 185

Book Description
As the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) pass their 2015 deadline and the international community begins to discuss the future of UN development policy, Poverty and the Millennium Development Goals brings together leading economists from both the global North and South to provide a much needed critique of the prevailing development agenda. By examining current development efforts, goals and policies, it exposes the structurally flawed and misleading measurements of poverty and hunger on which these efforts have been based, and which have led official sources to routinely underestimate the scale of world poverty even as the global distribution of wealth becomes ever more imbalanced.