In Defense of Openness: Why Global Freedom Is the Humane Solution to Global Poverty

The topic of global justice has long been a central concern within political philosophy and political theory, and there is no doubt that it will remain significant given the persistence of poverty on a massive scale and soaring global inequality. Yet, virtually every analysis in the vast literature of the subject seems ignorant of what developmental economists, both left and right, have to say about the issue.

In Defense of Openness illuminates the problem by stressing that that there is overwhelming evidence that economic rights and freedom are necessary for development, and that global redistribution tends to hurt more than it helps. Bas van der Vossen and Jason Brennan instead ask what a theory of global justice would look like if it were informed by the facts that mainstream development and institutional economics have brought to light. They conceptualize global justice as global freedom and insist we can help the poor-and help ourselves at the same time-by implementing open borders, free trade, the strong protection of individual freedom, and economic rights and property for all around the world. In short, they work from empirical, consequentialist grounds to advocate for the market society as a model for global justice.

A spirited challenge to mainstream political theory from two leading political philosophers, In Defense of Openness offers a new approach to global justice: We don't need to "save" the poor. The poor will save themselves, if we would only get out of their way and let them.

Bas van der Vossen is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Chapman University. He's the author of Debating Humanitarian Intervention (OUP, 2017), together with Fernando Teson, and has edited the Routledge Handbook of Libertarianism (Routledge, 2017), together with Jason Brennan and David Schmidtz.

Jason Brennan is the Flanagan Family Professor at Georgetown University. He is the author or co-author of nine books, including Against Democracy and When All Else Fails: Resistance, Violence, and State Injustice.