Politics as usual
Subtitle: what lies behind the pro-poor rhetoric
By: Thomas Pogge
Publisher: Polity
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Cambridge, UK; Malden, MA
Language: eng
Number of pages: 273
ISBN-13: 9780745638928; 9780745638935
Subjects: International cooperation; Poverty; Government policy
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. -- Back cover.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [242]-258) and index.
Table of contents: title: What is global justice?; title: Recognized and violated by international law : the human rights of the global poor; title: The first UN millennium development goal : a cause for celebration?; title: Developing morally plausible indices of poverty and gender equity : a research program; title: Growth and inequality : understanding recent trends and political choices; title: Dworkin, the abortion battle, and global poverty; title: Making war on terrorists : reflections on harming the innocent; title: Moralizing humanitarian intervention : why jurying fails and how law can work; title: Creating supranational institutions democratically : reflections on the European Union's "democratic deficit."