ABSTRACT
While most of these analyses of development have emerged from some form of moral reasoning and most have shared a concern with improving the lot of humanity, the growing literature dealing specifically with an ethical evaluation of development thinking is also examined. Attempts to incorporate an ethical dimension by means of concepts such as human flourishing, transcendence, solidarity and the common good are reviewed. The practical difficulties of operationalizing these philosophical concepts in a policy arena are also considered.
While many geographers and social scientists have long been preoccupied with the failure of development models within the developed world to bring about greater participation by society in the fruits of wealth creation, a significant part of development literature has focused for obvious reasons on the enormous and growing inequality between the rich north and the poor south. The extent of the gap involved is revealed by the fact that the share of world income for the richest 20 per cent rose from 70 per cent in 1960 to 85 per cent in 1991, while the share of the poorest 20 per cent fell from 2.3 per cent to 1.4 per cent. In 1960 the top fifth of the world’s population made 30 times more income than the bottom fifth and by 1989 this gap had expanded to 60 times. The extent of this gap reflects disparities in trade, investment, savings and commercial lending and in access to global market opportunities, with the bottom 20 per cent of the world population accounting for less than 1 per cent of world trade
