Introduction: The Problem of Global Justice
Introduction: The Problem of Global Justice
This chapter sets out the aim and structure of the book, and the motivation behind it. It discusses the challenges faced by liberal political theory in an era of globalization, particularly focusing on ‘the question of extension’, namely whether egalitarian principles of justice can be coherently extended from the domestic to the global arena. The chapter outlines the two most prominent answers to it – cosmopolitanism and statism – and argues that both entail fatal theoretical as well as practical difficulties. After discussing these difficulties, the chapter offers an overview of the normative framework developed in the book to address them. It outlines the book’s central claim, namely that the function of the principles of justice (as opposed to humanitarian assistance) is to evaluate the legitimacy of coercion, and anticipates its contents in detail.
Keywords: global justice, statism, cosmopolitanism, humanitarian assistance, coercion, freedom, liberalism, justification, equal respect, John Rawls
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