Global distributions of world resources

Open Access

Abstract

International audience ; While the global poor are largely excluded from natural resources and condemned to watch the affluent societies sharing the abundant natural wealth of this planet amongst them, they do get their proportional share of the burdens resulting from the global economics inequality. Large parts of mankind are excluded, at the global scale, from the natural and social resources and assets of our planet. Nevertheless it seems reasonable to think that feasible paths of institutional reforms whose pursuit would substantially raise the globally worst representative share, particularly in regard to the satisfaction of standard basic needs, exist. In fact part of the macroexplanations of the economic inequalities, of the misery and oppression, involve reference to basic global institutions. Within the national societies, the liberal theory entails a dimension of solidarity and conceives that a society is just, when it does not treat its members not only with an equal respect but also with an equal concern (Dworkin, 1985). Considering a fair global resources distribution, suppose to determine which extent this equal concern, relevant at the national level, could have at the global level. Could we extend this equal concern to the whole mankind? Could we aim for and find an integrated solution, a just and stable institutional scheme, preserving a distribution of basic rights, resources and index goods that is fair both globally and within each nation? In fact the question we would like to inquire is if the relevance of equalitarian liberal theories, at the domestic and national level, can be extended to a global scale. We would like to explore this problem firstly by an analysis of a global difference principle, secondly by an enquiry on the Pogge's Global Resource Dividend. Finally we will consider the institutional and political conditions for a globalisation of equity.