Globalization, Ethics, Justice, and Human Rights
Unit 10: Globalization and Ethics
Globalization
An economic process moving towards the establishment of transnational relations, creating a global society. Its characteristics include consistency, difference, a space for reflection, an exaggerated perception of risk and fear, and the globalization of problems.
Global Ethics
A response to the moral problems arising from the current level of scientific-technological development. It involves ethics and a practice of universality.
- Moral Minimum: Establishing a set of moral standards binding on all.
- Moral Maximum: Recognizing the right to difference for all members of a community.
Conceptions of Justice
- Justice = Judiciary: The judicial bodies.
- Justice = Under the Law: Legality.
- Justice = Moral Value or Virtue: Good.
Historical Perspectives on Justice
- Presocratics: Harmony.
- Sophists: Convention.
- Plato: The most important virtue.
- Aristotle: Obedience to the law.
- Medieval Epoch: Divine law.
- Rawls: Political equality.
- Walzer: Complex equality.
- Habermas and Apel: Justice is decided based on consensus.
Problems of Globalization
Global economic inequality and intensification of migratory flows.
Ethics and Gender
Traditional (masculine) ethics have focused on justice, while feminine ethics emphasize care.
Multiculturalism
The presence of different cultures in one place, whether or not they are related.
Characteristics of Human Rights
Universal, inalienable, imprescriptible, inviolable, and absolute.
Unit 11 (Continued): Historical Political Proposals
- Ancient Proposals: Aristocratic political solutions.
- The Church: Dual power (political and spiritual).
- Early Modern State: Absolute state.
- Rule of Law (Locke): Power is distributed.
- Montesquieu: Tripartite division of power.
- Hegel: Power resides in the State.
- Adam Smith: Right to private property.
- Socialism: Freedom, equality, and fraternity.
- Utopian Socialism: Collective ownership; capitalist solutions.
- Scientific or Marxist Socialism: State substitution of the bourgeoisie; ends class differences.
- Anarchism: Disappearance of private property.
Unit 11: Society and Politics
Humane Society
The grouping of human beings within a territory who share the same culture and institutions, and interact with each other.
- Community (Family): Group formed by individuals united by emotional ties.
- Society (Companies): Group composed of individuals related by utilitarian and rational purposes.
Politics and Civil Society
Politics: The administrative power that enables coexistence.
Civil society: A complex web of individual relationships and partnerships with many different purposes.
Civility: The virtue of citizen responsibility. It consists of living with the condition of membership in a society with shared objectives.
Theories of Society
- Naturalistic Theories: Society is prior to the individual.
- Plato: Man is not self-sufficient.
- Aristotle: Man who does not live in society is not a man.
- Middle Ages: Natural law.
- Modern Era: Instinct guided by interest.
- Contemporary Age: Social relations.
- Contractualism: Nature is the starting point; the social contract is a necessary device; the political system is based on legitimacy.
- Hobbes: State of war.
- Locke: Freemen under the same natural law.
- Rousseau: Man is absolutely free.
- Neocontractualism (John Rawls): Prior consensus; principles of equality and difference.
Politics, Legality, and Legitimacy
Politics: An activity conducted by members of a community designed to decide how to organize living together.
- Legality: Set of standards.
- Legitimacy: The ability of a power to be obeyed because its authority is accepted.
Features of the Modern State
- Exercise of power over a territory.
- Monopoly of physical coercion.
- Management of individuals’ lives through institutions.
State and Government
- State: Has effective, absolute, and perpetual power over the political community.
- Government: Political regime; development and implementation of policy guidelines; the executive branch.