Pogge - Chapters 6 & 7

I found chapter 6 to be effective, in that, it ties together his previous arguments regarding a need for a sense of shared responsibility with practical aspects of achieving democracy. One of the questions that I had as I read Chapter 6 is why Pogge focuses on what rulers within nations should do when the first part of his argument focuses on the global order. Although, I do understand why he would want to do this, in part (i.e. because these nations are all a part of the global order and therefore affect it), I still wasn't quite sure as to why, if Pogge states that we cannot blame world poverty on the poor countries and their leaders, he would take a bottom-up approach, instead of a top-down approach dealing with institutions. This concern was alleviated a bit in Chapter 7 as he discusses sovereignty and a top-down approach, so the two approaches seem reasonable to me when juxtaposed. I still question, though, what chances exist of a state limiting its own power, even if it is only in instances when its democracy might be compromised?

Another interesting aspect of Chapter 6 is the part about "invalid" transactions (170). Pogge's argument resounds with me here because, using the U.S. as an example, business practices here seem to be concerned, at least in theory, with ethics and ethical transactions, yet we seem to conveniently forget or ignore such practice on a global scale. Although, I'm not quite able to imagine his idea of a Democracy Fund being very effective in practice. I also had other reservations with regard to his arguments regarding under-developed states focusing on what they can do to enhance the global order when the citizens within such states do not have basic human rights, such as food and sanitation.

Lastly, I was so glad that Pogge discussed sovereignty reform in Chapter 7, because my earlier post on Chapters 4 and 5 had hinted that sovereignty plays a large role in this problem. I was really impressed with Pogge's conception of a vertical "dispersal" of sovereignty (187). His merging of cosmopolitanism and sovereignty is brilliant! As I was reading this part, I couldn't help but think of this international government, to which we owe our allegiance to, as opposed to the state governments that monopolize our current system. I can see many difficulties with this vertical approach, but I love the idea. If we shared this sense of a global community, perhaps our approach to human rights and social justice would be more effective and more in line with our notions of morality.