Ethics of Global Development: Agency, Capability, and Deliberative Democracy
Cambridge University Press, 7/10/2008
EAN 9780521885195, ISBN10: 0521885191
Hardcover, 432 pages, 23.5 x 15.8 x 3.1 cm
Language: English
Poverty, inequality, violence, environmental degradation, and tyranny continue to afflict the world. Ethics of Global Development offers a moral reflection on the ends and means of local, national, and global efforts to overcome these five scourges. After emphasizing the role of ethics in development studies, policy-making, and practice, David A. Crocker analyzes and evaluates Amartya Sen's philosophy of development in relation to alternative ethical outlooks. He argues that Sen's turn to robust ideals of human agency and democracy improves on both Sen's earlier emphasis on 'capabilities and functionings' and Martha Nussbaum's version of the capability orientation. This agency-focused capability approach is then extended and strengthened by applying it to the challenges of consumerism and hunger, the development responsibilities of affluent individuals and nations, and the dilemmas of globalization. Throughout the book the author argues for the importance of more inclusive and deliberative democratic institutions.
List of figures
Preface
Acknowledgements
1. Introduction
Part I. Development Ethics
2. Agreements, controversies and challenges
3. Ethics and development theory-practice
Part II. The Capability Approach
Ethical Foundations
4. Critique of alternatives
5. Agency, functioning and capability
6. Evaluating capabilities an functionings
Part III. Strengthening and Applying the Capability Approach
7. Agency, responsibility and consumption
8. Hunger, capability and agency-oriented development
Part IV. Deliberative Democracy, Participation and Globalization
9. The capability approach and deliberative democracy
10. Deliberative participation and local development
11. Development ethics, democracy and globalization
Index of names
Index of subjects.
Advance praise: 'David Crocker’s book opens up, in the most consistent manner, an area only imperfectly explored so far: the ethics of global development. It discusses whether there are duties of rich countries and individuals toward the poor. What is global justice? How fair is the existing trade system? What is the place of migration? As the world becomes more interdependent, these questions, generally discussed within the confines of the nation-state, will have to be addressed at a global level. David’s book is a big step in that direction.' Branko Milanovic, World Bank and Carnegie Endowment, Washington
'The inclusion of second-generation rights makes it possible to integrate ethical issues underlying general ideas of global development with the demands of deliberative democracy, both of which connect with human rights and quite often with an understanding of the importance of advancing human capabilities. In his far-reaching contribution to this integration in Ethics of Global Development: Agency, Capability and Deliberative Democracy, David Crocker points out that because agency and valuable capabilities are 'the basis for human rights, social justice, and both individual and collective duties', a development ethic will also examine how a globalized world is a help or a hindrance as individuals and institutions fulfil their moral obligation to respect rights. He goes on to argue that 'the long-term goal of good and just development – whether national or global – must be to secure an adequate level of agency and morally basic capabilities for everyone in the world – regardless of nationality, ethnicity, religion, age, gender, or sexual preference.' It is only with the inclusion of second-generation rights that this kind of a radical proposal for extended integration becomes possible, without taking us beyond the human rights framework.' Amartya Sen, The Idea of Justice