Interacting with Global Rights

Once Nagel accepts the political position, he runs into the problem of liberal states interacting with non-liberal states. Analyzing this relationship, he disagrees with Rawls’ conception. Rawls argued that, because nations must respect peoples, liberal nations must be tolerant of peoples that meet the minimum condition of decency. Rawls justifies this by attributing a moral nature and a moral right of equality to peoples, and gives these precedence over liberal values in the international sphere. Under this conception, a nation would lose the respect of other nations, and their moral claims, if they did not respect the human rights of its subjects.

Nagel takes issue with this. Under Rawls conception, nations would have to respect societies that were undemocratic and oppressive, as long as they met the minimum requirement. Nagel specifically mentions a theocratic society that does not prosecute minorities and observes due process, but does not allow for elections. He does not agree that such a nation deserves the respect of others. Although he recognizes that it may be more impractical, Nagel sees no moral issue with liberal societies supporting the transformation of non-liberal societies. In fact, because he believes that our respect for other nations is actually respect for the human rights of their members, allowing us to push for the protection of their human rights.

Nagels belief that our interactions with other nations should be based on the universalization of human rights is difficult to accept, give his position in the political conception. If Nagel believes that states’ respect for each other is based on the idea of human rights, rather than on the power of the sovereign, then the bar for international justice must be much lower. Much of Nagel’s paper is based on showing how we cannot have international justice because there is not sufficient structure in place to call our international economy an authority. If he now believes that human rights, not authority structures, are the basis for interactions, it is much easier to show that there is a strong relationship between internationally trading countries.