New book: Thomas Pogge on Poverty and Pro-Poor Rhetoric

Politics as Usual
What Lies Behind The Pro-Poor Rhetoric

By Thomas Pogge

(Polity Press, April 2010)

224 pp.



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.

Contents

General Introduction [preview]

1. What is global justice [paper] (MS-Word)
2. Recognized and violated by international law: The human rights of the global poor
3. The first UN Millennium Development Goal: A cause for celebration? [paper] (MS-Word)
4. Developing morally plausible indices of poverty and gender equity
5. Growth and inequality: Understanding recent trends and political choices
6. Dworkin, the abortion battle, and global poverty
7. Making war on terrorists: Reflections on harming the innocent
8. Moralizing humanitarian intervention: Why jurying fails and how law can work
9. Creating supranational institutions democratically: Reflections on the European Union’s “democratic deficit”

Thomas Pogge is Professor of Philosophy and International Affairs at Yale University. His books include "World Poverty and Human Rights" (Polity Press, 2002) and "John Rawls: His Life and Theory of Justice" (Oxford University Press, 2007).