Global Responsibilities by Kuper Andrew

Author:Kuper, Andrew.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis (CAM)

Conclusions

I claim to have done three things. First, I have given a diagnosis of our difficulties in thinking about global problems. Second, I have offered a novel view of responsibility. It differs from the commonsense view in two ways. It applies specifically to institutions and not individuals and it has different features; for example, it attributes less significance to the distinction between causing harm and allowing harm to happen. Finally, while the argument shows that some of the hurdles to making a complete attribution of responsibility to institutional agents are lower than they are for individuals, it does not prove that institutional agents are responsible for global problems. Proving that would require showing that there are no other reasons for limiting institutional agents’ responsibilities and that is something I have not done.

One feature of the argument worth noting is that it employs a distinction between institutional and individual responsibility and concludes that institutions have greater responsibilities than individuals. Distinctions between individual and institutional morality are usually drawn for the purpose of restricting the moral duties of states, especially in international relations. The assertion that the strictures of commonsense morality do not apply to the state is usually given as a rationale for holding the state to lesser standards: Thus it is sometimes said that the statesman must be ruthless in ways that we would not tolerate in a mere individual because of his role in safeguarding the state. By contrast, I am arguing that the differences between states and individuals support departing from commonsense morality by requiring institutions to bear greater responsibility for the interests of others. We have become accustomed to thinking of the state's role in this way on the social level: We expect the state to address a variety of social problems that defy individual solutions. I am urging that we take a similar attitude towards institutional action on the global level.

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