Acceso usuarios
Thomas Pogge
Las sociedades más avanzadas de la actualidad se estructuran en torno a tres elementos normativos: el Estado de derecho, la satisfacción de las necesidades humanas básicas y la limitación de las desigualdades. Son elementos profundamente arraigados en la cultura, y se espera que los ciudadanos subordinen sus intereses y valores a un compromiso con el funcionamiento social justo y equitativo. Podría decirse que la supervivencia a largo plazo de la humanidad requiere un logro civilizatorio análogo en el plano global. Allí también, las normas y los acuerdos institucionales justos y equitativos pueden persistir solo si se espera que quienes se encargan de su diseño y funcionamiento sean estrictamente imparciales en la ejecución de sus funciones públicas y, por tanto, ampliamente denunciados por cualquier favoritismo hacia su país de origen. Como un mero reflejo de modus vivendi, el estado actual de las relaciones internacionales implica la expectativa contraria: que los agentes que operan a nivel supranacional actúen para promover los intereses y valores concretos de su Estado de origen. Este nepotismo nacional impide el surgimiento de un orden mundial basado en valores compartidos que la humanidad necesita urgentemente.
Today’s most advanced societies are structured around three normative elements: rule of law, meeting basic human needs, and constrained inequality. These are culturally deeply entrenched to the point that citizens are expected fully to subordinate their diverse personal interests and values to their shared commitment to their society’s just and fair functioning. This entrenched normative expectation of impartiality is surprising: a mother giving a favor to her own beloved child is widely denounced if she does so in the execution of a public office. Harsh as such condemnation of nepotism may appear, it is a key precondition for the most successful societies yet created. Arguably, the long-term survival of humanity requires an analogous civilizational achievement on the global plane. There, as well, just and fair rules and institutional arrangements can persist only if those entrusted with their design and operation are expected to be strictly impartial in the execution of their public roles and hence widely denounced for any favoritism toward their home country. Reflecting a mere modus vivendi, the current state of international relations involves the opposite expectation: that agents operating at the supranational level will act to advance the special interests and values of their home state. Such national nepotism prevents the emergence of a world order based on shared values, which humanity urgently needs to master the great challenges posed by nationally controlled advanced weapons and other dangerous technologies, by climate change, pollution, and resource depletion, and by supranational lobbying resulting in inefficient and unstable international institutional arrangements that can lead to massive economic collapse.
