Ethical Issues Flashcards
PLURALISM
Ideology that the global political arena is made of seperate communities with some shared standards that should play a role in foreign policy, but conflicting ideas about morality between cultures makes this challenging.
COSMOPOLITANISM
Ideology that humanity is one single moral community regardless of state, culture, or levels of economic development and thus the same rules apply to all humans and all should be treated equally. Global actors should act with this motivation; ethical principles should be the foundation of foreign policy.
REALISM
Ideology that the global political arena is made up of individual states, each with their own standards and no obligation to one another and common morality. Foreign policy should be based purely on calculations of national interest, and any co-operation with other actors is to further national interests.
SUSTAINABILITY
Organising states and their economies so current needs are met while not jeopardising meeting those needs in the future. Advocates for maintenance of ecosystems and biodiversity as well as the sustainable use of resources.
Sustainable development is the idea that the pursuit of development by the present generation should not be at the expense of future generations. The term is also synonymous with making sure that development occurs across all sectors of society.
INEQUALITY
The condition of social disparity within a state.
POVERTY
The condition in which people are unable to satisfy their basic needs, leading to a lack of food, clean water, sanitation, etc. Predominantly viewed in economic terms with expanded visions encompassing dignity, agency, opportunity and choice.
DEVELOPMENT
The advancement or improvement of an economy and society. Seeks to eradicate poverty. Commonly measured in terms of changes in gross national product per capita and GNP’s between states. A state is developing when GNP is increasing and the gap between a states GNP and that of a ‘developed’ state decreases.
TRICKLE-DOWN MODEL
Overall economic growth automatically brings benefits for the poorer classes since economic wealth and opportunities ‘trickle down’.
MODERNIST MODEL
Less developed states will only develop by shedding traditional social, political and economic institutions and become urban, dynamic, flexible and innovative; culture is the fundamental obstacle to development and trade is the engine of economic growth. But- not so easy to simply remove traditional institutions, and one has to question cultural bias of model which shows preference for development based on Western European principles, plus, can the same paths of development followed by Western states be duplicated given developing states have only developed states as their markets and sources of capital? And can the industrial sectors of developing economies compete with those already established in the developed world?
WASHINGTON CONSENSUS MODEL
Ten policy recommendations based on the principle that trade liberalisation, finance and investment maximise global welfare. Adopted by World Bank, IMF, and US government. Although some states experienced rapid growth, these were not complemented by legal, social and political development. In some states the gap between the poor and rich increased and states abilities to provide services decreased as they sold off government assets.
Post model- prioritises ‘voices of the poor’, adopted Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers which describe macroeconomic, structural and social policies and programs over a three year or longer horizon, typically containing detail on expenditure policies on health, education and poverty. These are compulsory for states wishing to access finance from the IMF and World Bank
BHUTAN MODEL
At the centre of Bhutanese government’s development philosophy is gross national happiness. The government seeks to maximise the happiness of its citizens through education, environmental protection, cultural promotion and good governance as opposed to simply focusing on economic growth indicators. At the heart of this model is the idea that development is more than economic growth and that material factors alone are insufficient to measure it.
MICRO-FINANCE
Lending small amounts of money at low interest to new businesses in the developing world. Bangladeshi economic professor Muhammed Yunus established the Grameen bank in 1983, lending to the poorest of the poor, focusing on local opportunities rather than international incentives. Has disbursed more than US 6.25 billion in small loans, and as of December 2015 had 8.81 million borrowers, 97% women. For revolutionising development theory, he was awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, and in 2005 estimated microcredit reached nearly 100 million families, with the UN declaring it the Year of Microcredit.
Microfinance projects have facilitated the spread of mobile phone technology, and a study by the London Business School found in a typical developing country the rise of ten mobile phones per 100 people boosts GDP by 0.6%, thus Former UN Secretary General states “Microfinance has proved its value in many countries as a weapon against poverty and hunger”, and former Bangladesh UN ambassador termed microcredit “a major instrument of poverty alleviation”.
ARMS CONTROL AND DISARMAMENT
Both processes seeking to construct more peaceful global arena through
