This book explores a hitherto unexamined possibility of justifiable
disobedience opened up by John Rawls’ Law of Peoples. This is the
possibility of disobedience justified by appeal to standards of
decency that are shared by peoples who do not otherwise share
commitments to the same principles of justice, and whose societies are
organized according to very different basic social institutions.
Justified by appeal to shared decency standards, disobedience by
diverse state and non-state actors indeed challenge injustices in the
international system of states. The book considers three case
studies: disobedience by the undocumented, disobedient challenges to
global economic inequities, and the disobedient disclosure of
government secrets. It proposes a substantial analytical redefinition
of civil disobedience in a global perspective, identifying the
creation of global solidarity relations as its goal. Michael Allen
breaks new ground in our understanding of global justice. Traditional
views, such as those of Rawls, see justice as a matter of recognizing
the moral status of all free and equal person as citizens in a
state. Allen argues that this fails to see things from the global
perspective. From this perspective disobedience is not merely a matter
of social cooperation. Rather, it is a matter of self determination
that guarantees the invulnerability of different types of persons and
peoples to domination. This makes the disobedience by the undocumented
justified, based on the idea that all persons are moral equals, so
that all sovereign peoples need to reject dominating forms of social
organization for all persons, and not just their own citizens. In an
age of mass movements of people, Allen gives us a strong reason to
change our practices in treating the undocumented. James Bohman, St
Louis University, Danforth Chair in the Humanities This monograph is
an important contribution to our thinking on civil disobedience and
practices of dissent in a globalized world. This is an era where
non-violent social movements have had a significant role in
challenging the abuse of power in contexts as diverse, yet
interrelated as the Arab Spring protests and the Occupy protests.
Moreover, while protests such as these speak to a local political
horizon, they also have a global footprint, catalyzing a transnational
dialogue about global justice, political strategy and cosmopolitan
solidarity. Speaking directly to such complexities, Allen makes a
compelling case for a global perspective regarding civil disobedience.
Anyone interested in how the dynamics of non-violent protest have
shaped and reshaped the landscape for democratic engagement in a
globalized world will find this book rewarding and insightful. Vasuki
Nesiah, New York University
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Decency and Dissent over Borders, Inequities, and Government Secrecy
Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9789402411645
Publisert
2018
Utgiver
Vendor
Springer
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter