Political Science: Global Justice

Addresses normative political theory that asks what obligations, if any, citizens and their states have internationally. Topics include human rights, immigration, global poverty, humanitarian military intervention, and more. Prerequisite: POLS 1200 or POLS 1012; three hours of Political Science at the 2000-level.

Prereqs enforced by the system POLS 1200 or POLS 1012; Other prerequisite: 3 hours Political Science at 2000 level; Minimum Junior standing. Open to Jr/Sr POLS majors only until April 9th. PACE students by permission and override.

Do we have duties to help the poor in other countries? Does justice demand that we stop climate change? Do we have moral responsibilities to the sweatshop workers who produce the clothes we wear? This seminar introduces students to the most important ethical debates about global politics. The first of these debates is on global poverty and the human right to health. Malaria, a major poverty related disease, kills a child every thirty seconds in the developing world, according to the United Nations. Do we have a duty of justice to prevent and treat illness in other countries? Should we go further, and reduce poverty globally? After addressing issues of aid, we will turn to questions of global distributive justice. While aid asks how much the wealthy should give to the poor, distributive justice examines how the economic structure distributes wealth and opportunity in the first place. For example, where you happen to born greatly affects how well or badly your life goes. You will have far more wealth and opportunity if you are born in the United States or Australia instead of sub-Sahara Africa. Is this fair, or is it as morally arbitrary as your life chances being determined by your race or gender? We will examine debates in global economic justice about the ethics of sweatshops and our duties to mitigate climate change, which disproportionately harms the poorest people in the world. The third part of the course focuses on the United Nations, World Trade Organization, and other global governance institutions. As countries cooperate more closely to solve the largest ethical issues of our time, global governance institutions have grown more powerful. How can we ensure that they will also be accountable, legitimate, and fair? How can global governance be made more democratic and responsive to the concerns of ordinary people? Finally, students will examine the justice or injustice of war in international politics. What are the just or unjust reasons for going to war? Should we do more to protect civilians? Students should develop by the end of the course a deeper understanding of the most vital issues in global justice.