Are human rights enough? On human rights and inequality

In this paper I respond to the central claims presented in Samuel Moyn’s influential book, Not Enough: Human Rights in an Unequal World. Moyn argues that human rights have the following features: they are powerless to combat growing material inequality; they share key characteristics with neoliberal...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal:	Charles Jones
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Taylor & Francis Group 2021
Materias:	human rights inequality global justice hierarchy samuel moyn Political science (General) JA1-92 Ethics BJ1-1725
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/7439894dcd644263b47cecf6a5bd616d
Etiquetas:	Agregar Etiqueta Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!

id	oai:doaj.org-article:7439894dcd644263b47cecf6a5bd616d
record_format	dspace
spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:7439894dcd644263b47cecf6a5bd616d2021-11-26T11:19:47ZAre human rights enough? On human rights and inequality1654-49511654-636910.1080/16544951.2021.1991138https://doaj.org/article/7439894dcd644263b47cecf6a5bd616d2021-10-01T00:00:00Zhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1080/16544951.2021.1991138https://doaj.org/toc/1654-4951https://doaj.org/toc/1654-6369In this paper I respond to the central claims presented in Samuel Moyn’s influential book, Not Enough: Human Rights in an Unequal World. Moyn argues that human rights have the following features: they are powerless to combat growing material inequality; they share key characteristics with neoliberalism; they make only minimalist or sufficientarian demands and therefore are not enough to achieve the equality demanded by justice. He suggests, in particular, that Henry Shue’s Basic Rights exemplifies these features. My response argues that Moyn does not accurately present the core conceptual and normative characteristics of human rights, nor does he succeed in implicating Shue’s conception in his critique. I suggest that Moyn’s own ideas about global justice are incompletely developed, including his views about the scope, content, and distributive principles that should guide an account of global justice. Finally, I argue that, even though human rights are only part of an account of global justice, nonetheless they do provide reasons to limit socioeconomic inequality. This point is exemplified by the claim that a human right to democracy requires limits on material inequality in order to prevent power hierarchy. In short, I agree with Moyn that human rights are not enough by themselves to achieve global justice, but I reject his multi-pronged critique of human rights, specifically his claim that they imply no constraints on socioeconomic inequality.Charles JonesTaylor & Francis Grouparticlehuman rightsinequalityglobal justicehierarchysamuel moynPolitical science (General)JA1-92EthicsBJ1-1725ENEthics & Global Politics, Vol 14, Iss 4 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	human rights inequality global justice hierarchy samuel moyn Political science (General) JA1-92 Ethics BJ1-1725
spellingShingle	human rights inequality global justice hierarchy samuel moyn Political science (General) JA1-92 Ethics BJ1-1725 Charles Jones Are human rights enough? On human rights and inequality
description	In this paper I respond to the central claims presented in Samuel Moyn’s influential book, Not Enough: Human Rights in an Unequal World. Moyn argues that human rights have the following features: they are powerless to combat growing material inequality; they share key characteristics with neoliberalism; they make only minimalist or sufficientarian demands and therefore are not enough to achieve the equality demanded by justice. He suggests, in particular, that Henry Shue’s Basic Rights exemplifies these features. My response argues that Moyn does not accurately present the core conceptual and normative characteristics of human rights, nor does he succeed in implicating Shue’s conception in his critique. I suggest that Moyn’s own ideas about global justice are incompletely developed, including his views about the scope, content, and distributive principles that should guide an account of global justice. Finally, I argue that, even though human rights are only part of an account of global justice, nonetheless they do provide reasons to limit socioeconomic inequality. This point is exemplified by the claim that a human right to democracy requires limits on material inequality in order to prevent power hierarchy. In short, I agree with Moyn that human rights are not enough by themselves to achieve global justice, but I reject his multi-pronged critique of human rights, specifically his claim that they imply no constraints on socioeconomic inequality.
format	article
author	Charles Jones
author_facet	Charles Jones
author_sort	Charles Jones
title	Are human rights enough? On human rights and inequality
title_short	Are human rights enough? On human rights and inequality
title_full	Are human rights enough? On human rights and inequality
title_fullStr	Are human rights enough? On human rights and inequality
title_full_unstemmed	Are human rights enough? On human rights and inequality
title_sort	are human rights enough? on human rights and inequality
publisher	Taylor & Francis Group
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/7439894dcd644263b47cecf6a5bd616d
work_keys_str_mv	AT charlesjones arehumanrightsenoughonhumanrightsandinequality
_version_	1718409541306023936

Are human rights enough? On human rights and inequality

Ejemplares similares