How to Run the World by Parag Khanna

Author:Parag Khanna [Khanna, Parag]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 978-0-679-60428-0
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2011-01-10T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

Getting Rights Right

Accountability is the DNA of civilized societies.

—SIMON ZADEK, founder, AccountAbility

The United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948, was one of the earliest documents to embody the existence of an international community of values. The fact that it has almost no relevance in today’s world, therefore, could be a good thing only if all of its tenets had been achieved. But that’s not the world we live in. On paper, everyone in the world today has rights: citizens, taxpayers, corporations, immigrants, consumers, children, the elderly, disabled people, and refugees. Yet the contradiction between the notion of universal human rights and the reality of human wrongs has never been greater. Over the past three years, the number of countries that the NGO Freedom House has assessed to be, at best, “partly free” has risen to more than one hundred, while only ninety countries are fully “free.” Another blunt reality is that in our neo-medieval world, neither America nor the United Nations has the moral authority to lead a new crusade for global rights.

The success of societies today is measured materially first, then justified ideologically. It seems most people in the world no longer care whether their system of government is a democracy or goes by some other label so long as it gets things done. The strong performance of many non-democracies, such as China, Vietnam, and the Persian Gulf states, has delivered a powerful wake-up call that good governance can come in many forms. Similarly, there is also no single rule book on how to promote justice across borders: The most effective strategies are now led by technology companies and street-smart NGOs, both of which penetrate societies more deeply than government programs. But they all have their work cut out for them because, paradoxically, the wealthier many places become, the more opportunities for corruption there will be. The fight for accountability requires mega-diplomacy from top to bottom.

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