Fairness in Practice A Social Contract for a Global Economy

by James, Aaron

• ISBN13: 9780199846153
• ISBN10: 0199846154
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-04-13
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

If the global economy seems unfair, how should we understand what a fair global economy would be? What ideas of fairness, if any, apply, and what significance do they have for policy and law? Working within the social contract tradition, this book argues that fairness is best seen as a kind of equity in practice. The global economy as we know it is organized by an international social practice in which countries mutually rely upon common markets. This practice generates shared responsibilities of "structural equity," independently of humanitarian, human rights, or other justice concerns, for how benefits and burdens are distributed across different societies and their social classes. Equity in the practice of trade requires not only compensation of people harmed by their exposure to global economic forces, but also equal division of the "gains of trade," across and within societies, unless still greater gains flow to developing countries. Fairness therefore calls for strong social insurance schemes, international capital controls, policy flexibility for developing countries, and more-all as the "fair price" of free trade.

Author Biography

Aaron James is Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of California, Irvine

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
Main Ideas	p. 3
Social Foundations
Economic Skepticism	p. 35
Hobbesian Skepticism	p. 77
The Moral Problem of Assurance	p. 103
Basic Fairness
Structural Equity	p. 131
The Benchmark of Equality	p. 165
Principles of Equity	p. 203
Fairness Issues
Financial Crises	p. 249
The Level Playing Field: Intellectual Property	p. 285
Exploitation, Degradation, and Other Moral Concerns	p. 305
Works Cited	p. 335
Index	p. 355
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