Global Inequality Matters

Global Inequality Matters

Also by Darrel Moellendorf: COSMOPOLITAN JUSTICE CURRENT DEBATES IN GLOBAL JUSTICE (co-edited with Gillian Brock) GLOBAL JUSTICE: Seminal Essays (co-edited with Thomas Pogge) JURISPRUDENCE (co-edited with Chris Roederer) Global Ethics Series Series Editor: Christien van den Anker, Reader, Department of Politics, University of the West of England, UK Global Ethics as a field builds on longer traditions of ethical reflection about (global) society and discusses ethical approaches to global issues. These include but are not limited to issues highlighted by the process of globalization (in the widest sense) and increasing multiculturalism. They also engage with migration, the environment, poverty and inequality, peace and conflict, human rights, global citizenship, social movements, and global governance. Despite fluid boundaries between fields, Global Ethics can be clearly marked out by its multidisciplinary approach, its interest in a strong link between theory, policy and practice and its inclusion of a range of work from strictly normative to more empirical. Books in the series provide a specific normative approach, taxonomy or an ethical position on a specific issue in Global Ethics through empirical work. They explicitly engage with Global Ethics as a field and position themselves in regard to existing debates even when outlining more local approaches or issues. The Global Ethics Series has been designed to reach beyond a liberal cosmopolitan agenda and engage with contextualism as well as structural analyses of injustice in current global politics and its disciplining discourses. Titles include: Ivan Manokha (editor) THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF HUMAN RIGHTS ENFORCEMENT Darrel Moellendorf GLOBAL INEQUALITY MATTERS Global Ethics Series Series Standing Order ISBN 978 0 230 01958 4 (outside North America only) You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us at the address below with your name and address, the title of the series and the ISBN quoted above. Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, England

Global Inequality Matters Darrel Moellendorf Professor, Department of Philosophy and Director Institute for Ethics and Public Affairs San Diego State University San Diego, CA

Darrel Moellendorf 2009 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2009 978-0-230-22457-5 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2009 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-30953-5 ISBN 978-0-230-24690-4 (ebook) DOI 10.1057/9780230246904 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09

To my father, Arnold Moellendorf, and the memory of my mother, Delores Moellendorf

All the grand sources...of human suffering are in a great degree, any of them almost entirely conquerable by human care and effort...every mind sufficiently intelligent and generous to bear a part, however small and inconspicuous, in the endeavour will draw a noble enjoyment from the conquest itself, which he would not for any bribe in the form of selfish indulgence consent to be without. John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism

Contents Acknowledgments viii 1 Inequality and the Inherent Dignity of Persons 1 2 Coercion and the Conditions of Distributive Justice 19 3 Equal Respect in Political and Economic Associations 40 4 Global Equality of Opportunity Defended 68 5 International Trade, Development and Labor 90 6 Climate Change, Development and Mitigation 106 7 Global Distributive Institutions 132 Notes 154 Index 175 vii

Acknowledgments In writing this book I have been helped greatly by comments from, and discussions with, many colleagues from around the world. It seems appropriate to name them, but I fear that I will neglect to acknowledge my debts to everyone in doing so. At the risk of doing that, I d like to thank the following people for comments and discussions: Christien van den Anker, Chris Armstrong, Christian Barry, Chris Bertram, Gillian Brock, Christoph Broszies, Luis Cabrera, Simon Caney, Victoria Costa, Ben Crow, Josh Gert, Alan Gilbert, Henning Hahn, Nicole Hassoun, Michael Howard, Jon Mandle, Thad Metz, Michael Pendlebury, Thomas Pogge, Kok-Chor Tan, Mary Tjiattas, Marius Vermaak, Paul Voice and Mark Wheeler. Chapters 2, 4 and 6 of this book draw on material that I have published in journals. I am grateful to the journals for permitting me to use some what was published in following three articles: Equal Respect and Global Egalitarianism, Social Theory and Practice, 32:4 October 2006, 601 616; Equality of Opportunity Globalized, Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence, XIX:2 July 2006, 301 318; and Treaty Norms and Climate Change Mitigation, Ethics and International Affairs, 23:3 September 2009. Versions of several of the chapters were also presented at various venues. I would like to thank the organizers for the opportunities and the audiences for enriching my thinking about these matters. My list to thank includes the following: Bennington College; the Political Theory Workshop, Brown University; the Society for International Philosophical Cooperation in conjunction with the American Philosophical Association; the International Capabilities Network Conference in Pavia; the Department Philosophy, University of Maine; the Werkmeister Conference on Cosmopolitanism, Florida State University; the International Studies Association; the Department of Political Science and International Relations, the University of Birmingham; the Philosophy Department, San Diego State viii

Acknowledgments ix University; the International Office, Rhodes University; the Department of Philosophy, University of the Witwatersrand; the Department of Philosophy, University of Johannesburg; the Department of Political Science and International Relations, Oxford University; the Philosophy Department, University of Rochester; the Mapping Global Inequalities conference at the University of California, Santa Cruz; the Institut für Interkulterelle und Internationale Studien, Universität Bremen; the Workshop on Absolute Poverty and Human Rights, Universität Erfurt and the Institute for Health and Social Policy, McGill University. I am also grateful for the support that I have received from various institutions and organizations over the period of the several years when I was writing this book. These include the James Hervey Johnson Charitable Educational Trust, the International Office of Rhodes University and the Deutsche Akademische Austausch Dienst. I would like San Diego State University for supporting me with a difference-in-pay leave while finishing this book. I am especially grateful to the Institute for Advanced Study and the Friends of the Institute for Advanced Study for hosting and supporting me as I was finishing this manuscript. Finally, my deepest appreciation goes to Bonnie and Marino Friedmann for their encouragement and loving companionship that has sustained me.