ABSTRACT
Silent citizenship raises concerns about global justice. Because of the vast inequalities
in life prospects for people situated in various locations across the globe, the silence of
citizens in underdeveloped states is fundamentally different from the silence of citizens in
developed democracies. In developed democracies, silent citizenship is a product of forms
of apathy, disengagement, or disempowerment that preclude citizens from voicing their
preferences and opinions in processes of collective political decision-making.
In underdeveloped states, silent citizenship is a product a deeper injustice: inequality in
and between states. For this reason, many recent cosmopolitan discussions of global
justice have rightly been concerned with the distribution of social goods that lead citizens
in underdeveloped states to remain silent. The distributive model has in turn shaped
discussion of political justice, where distributive justice becomes an indicator of basic
concern and respect for all citizens.
