[EQ] Public goods, global public goods and the common good

Public goods, global public goods and the common good

Séverine Deneulin and Nicholas Townsend
ESRC Research Group on Wellbeing in Developing Countries (WeD). University of Bath

 

Available online as PDF file [28p.] at: http://www.welldev.org.uk/research/workingpaperpdf/wed18.pdf

 

“…..This paper examines the extent to which introducing the concept of global public goods in international development

·         It argues that the concept of global public goods could be more effective if the conception of well-being it assumes is broadened beyond the individual level. ‘Living well’ or the ‘good life’ does not dwell in individual lives only, but also in the lives of communities which human beings form. A successful provision of global public goods depends on this recognition that the ‘good life’ of the communities that people form is a constitutive component of the ‘good life’ of individual human beings.

·         The second section examines the concept of public goods and discusses some problems generally associated with their provision. It underlines that in the literature public goods are considered as instrumental to individual well-being and to be provided to this end. However, there exist public goods which defy the assumption that collective action, and the ensuing public goods provision, is always instrumental to individual well-being.

·         The third section contrasts collective goods and ‘common goods’ and goes on to show that human action is sometimes undertaken for the sake of the good  life understood as intrinsically in common. This has been referred to by the term ‘the common good’ in the history of Western political thought.
As the political community has traditionally been the highest form of community,

·         The fourth section analyzes the concept of the political common good and clarifies some conceptual ambiguities related to it.

·         The final section considers implications of the concept of the common good for international development.
The paper concludes by suggesting that rediscovery of this concept, and identification of how to nurture the common good, constitute one of the major tasks for development theory and policy…”

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