TY - JOUR
T1 - The Feasible Alternative Thesis
T2 - Kicking away the Livelihood of the Global Poor
AU - Barry, Christian
AU - Overland, Esben
N1 - Imported on 12 Apr 2017 - DigiTool details were: month (773h) = February, 2012; Journal title (773t) = Politics, Philosophy and Economics. ISSNs: 1470-594X;
PY - 2012/2
Y1 - 2012/2
N2 - Many assert that affluent countries have contributed in the past to poverty in developing countries through wars of aggression and conquest, colonialism and its legacies, the imposition of puppet leaders, and support for brutal dictators and venal elites. Thomas Pogge has recently argued that there is an additional and, arguably, even more consequential way in which the affluent continue to contribute to poverty in the developing world. He argues that when people cooperate in instituting and upholding institutional arrangements that foreseeably result in more severe or more widespread poverty or human rights deficits than would foreseeably result under feasible alternative arrangements, they are contributors to these harms. Because of this, he argues, they have stringent, contribution-based (or negative) duties to address this poverty. We will call this the 'Feasible Alternatives Thesis' (FAT), and our aim in this article is to examine it critically.
AB - Many assert that affluent countries have contributed in the past to poverty in developing countries through wars of aggression and conquest, colonialism and its legacies, the imposition of puppet leaders, and support for brutal dictators and venal elites. Thomas Pogge has recently argued that there is an additional and, arguably, even more consequential way in which the affluent continue to contribute to poverty in the developing world. He argues that when people cooperate in instituting and upholding institutional arrangements that foreseeably result in more severe or more widespread poverty or human rights deficits than would foreseeably result under feasible alternative arrangements, they are contributors to these harms. Because of this, he argues, they have stringent, contribution-based (or negative) duties to address this poverty. We will call this the 'Feasible Alternatives Thesis' (FAT), and our aim in this article is to examine it critically.
KW - Feasible Alternatives Thesis
KW - Human rights
KW - Justice
KW - Pogge
KW - Poverty
U2 - 10.1177/1470594X10387273
DO - 10.1177/1470594X10387273
M3 - Article
SN - 1470-594X
VL - 11
SP - 97
EP - 119
JO - Politics, Philosophy and Economics
JF - Politics, Philosophy and Economics
IS - 1
ER -