Economic Globalisation and Global Justice Gran Collste

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Economic Globalisation and Global JusticeGöran
Collste

• LUCSUS Seminar, Lund, March 16 2006

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The Washington consensus

• IMF and World Bank Conditions for loans and
  support
• Decrease of state expenditures
• Stiff financial policy
• Privatisation (health care, education etc)
• Liberalisation of trade removal of customs and
  tariffs

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Structural adjustment programmes (SAP)

• Justification
• Reforms that in the short run imply a lower
  standard of living due to for example fees on
  education and health care in the long run will
  bring about economic development

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Lower standard of living

• Interpretation 1 A general lowering of living
  standard but still a decent standard for
  everyone.
• I 2 Poverty for certain social strata, implying
  no schooling and limited access to health care
  due to fees, leading to illiteracy, diseases,
  prostitution, trafficking and early deaths.
• I N.

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In short and long run

• Time span
• 5 years,
• 10 years
• 50 years

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Development

• I 1 A higher standard of living for everyone
• I 2 A higher standard only for those who already
  have a high standard
• I 3A higher standard of living particularly for
  those who where hit by the previous lowering
• I N

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Reforms that in the short run imply a lower
standard of living due to for example fees on
education and health care in the long run will
bring about economic development

• There is a lowering of the living standard for
  everyone but still a decent standard in, say,
  10 years the standard of living for everyone will
  increase and in particular for those who suffered
  most from the former lowering

• Widespread poverty implying early deaths for many
  and that other population strata in a number of
  years will enjoy a high standard of living

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Globalisation

• 1)processes and relations (social, economic,
  political, cultural etc) that are
• 2)transcending national borders, that
• 3)link distant places and peoples and that
• 4)are spontaneous rather than the result of
  political decisions.

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Economic globalisation

• Global trade has increased not less than 17 times
  from 1982 to 1999. Total volumes of foreign
  investments grew from 15 billions to 240
  billions from 1970 to 1990.
• The yearly sales volume of the worlds 50 largest
  companies increased from 540 billion1975 to
  2100 in 1990. Today 50 of the worlds 100
  largest economies, are companies, the rest are
  nations!

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Financial globalisation

• The global financial market, i.e. the global
  trading of currencies, securities, bonds etc,
  increased from 20 billion per day 1973 to 1800
  billion per day 1998

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Globalisation

• As the twentieth century comes to a close, the
  modern system of independent states is being
  transformed. National governments are gradually
  losing control over domestic economic and
  political affairs. Separate national economies
  are being replaced by a single, integrated global
  economy and basic political functions, which
  traditionally have been the province of national
  authorities, are being delegated to international
  institutions including transnational
  corporations. The twin processes of economic and
  political integration have fundamentally altered
  our world order
• Adams, F, Dev Gupta, S, The Political economy of
  Globalisation

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Global inequality

• The richest 200 persons have an income of 1042
  billion.
• More than 1 billion people lack access to clean
  water and 2.4 billion have insufficient sanitary
  equipment.
• 1.2 billion people are very poor and earn less
  than 1/day.

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Global inequality
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Aristotles theory of justice

• Distinction
• Distributive justice distribution of honour,
  moneyforward looking
• Rectificatory justice plays a rectifying part
  backward looking

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Global Justice

• Global Rectificatory Justice (GRJ)
• Global Distributive Justice (GDJ).

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The history of Colonialism

• 15 20th century
• Flew of resources
• raw materials (mines, farms)
• people (slaves)
• Adjustment of economies and borders
• Political and economic dependence

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• for in the case also in which one has received
  and the other has inflicted a wound, or one has
  slain and the other been slain, the suffering and
  the action has been unequally distributed but
  the judge tries to equalize things by means of
  the penalty, taking away from the gain of the
  assailanttherefore corrective justice will be
  the intermediate between the loss and gain
  (Aristotle, V4)

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John Locke (1632-1704)

• the earth is given to mankind in common and
  every individual is by God given equal rights to
  employ the creation
• if there is enough, and as good left in common
  for others.

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Robert Nozicks entitlement theory

• A person is entitled to his or her property
  provided that it is acquired in a just way.
  Hence, property rights depend on justice in
  acquisition and justice in transfer
• a philosophical justification of libertarianism

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Constraints to the application of GRJ

• time-related restrictions
• its application depends on whether the colonial
  or imperial power still gain and the subject of
  colonialism and imperialism still suffer from
  former injustices.
• It depends of historical facts...

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Global Distributive justice

• A Rawlsian (but not Rawls) theory of GDJ
• The hypothetical device of a social contract is
  then transferred from a nation to the world as a
  whole. Representatives of the worlds population
  deliberate on the appropriate principles of
  justice behind a veil of ignorance
• Cosmopolitan

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Global Distributive Justice

• 1) A principle of respect for universal basic
  human rights
• 2) A principle of democratic legitimacy of global
  governance, and
• 3) A principle of equal distribution of social
  goods unless an unequal distribution is to the
  benefit of the least advantaged.

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.Oxfam Briefing Paper 85 What happened in Hong
Kong? Initial analysis of the WTO Ministerial,
December 2005 The WTO Hong Kong ministerial
meeting was a lost opportunity to make trade
fairer for poor people around the world. Rich
countries put their commercial interests before
those of developing countries...