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Fostering a Sense of Fairness

Renown economist and peace researcher Kenneth Boulding used to quote what he called "Matthew's Law" from the Book of Matthew: "From whomsoever hath, to him shall be given," or, further simplified, "he who has, gets." This statement is still true. According to a 2006 study by the United Nations University's World Institute for Development Economics Research, the richest 2% of adults in the world owned over half of global household wealth, the richest 1% owned over 40%, and the top 10% owned 85%. The entire bottom half of the world population owned only 1% of global assets! [1] Similar disparities are seen within individual countries both developed and not. For example, in 2007 in the United States, the top 1% owned 35% of the wealth, the next 19% owned 50.5%, leaving only 15% for the bottom 80% [2]. In Brazil, which, in 2007, had the 10th highest GDP in the world and a 4.5% growth rate (at least before the latest economic downturn), the top 10% of the population earn 43% of the income, while; the bottom 10% earn only 1% of the income. [3] Likewise, in Kenya, the top 10% earned almost 40% of the income while the bottom 10% earned under 2% (2005 figure). [4] Such inequality of wealth also leads to inequality of power which then leads to inequality of other aspects of well-being: health, education, and employment among others. All of this, many scholars agree, leads to increases in political and criminal violence.

Nowhere is this more evident than in Juarez Mexico. In a book published in March 2010, Journalist Charles Bowden describes Ciudad Juarez as "a killing field" where there were 300 homicides in 2007, 1600 in 2008, and 2600 in 2009. [5] The trend appears to be continuing in 2010, he said in a radio interview. [4] Bowden sees this stemming from hopelessness, due, in turn, to the completely failed economy. In the last year alone, he said, " 100,000 people lost their factory jobs and 40 percent of the businesses have closed. Twenty five percent of the houses have been abandoned" and the only major employment to be found is with the drug cartels. [6] In the state of Chihuahua (of which Juarez is the largest city), a recent study determined that 40% of young men aspired to the profession of "contract killer." [7] One cause of this attitude: over half of the young males in Chihuahua are neither in school, nor employed. Being a "contract killer" is a way to make money, and it may appear to be the best way to stay alive. 

Bowden's story about Juarez and others on the link between fairness and violence are found below:

Journalist Chronicles 'Killing Fields' Of Juarez

Maire Dugan makes a distinction between inequity and inequality. Inequality, she says is merely a descriptive term--some people have more of something than others. Inequity goes beyond this: the distribution is not only unequal; it is unfair and unjust. When sources of inequity are built into the social system, they can have profound effects. First, they tend to persist over both time and space. Often, they are blamed on the people being discriminated-against. Blacks were defined as less than human in much European thinking that was then used to justify colonization and the slave trade. Such thinking was imported to the New World and became a rationalization for slavery, rape, Jim Crow laws, and a variety of other atrocities. [8] Such thinking was not unique to Europeans, nor is it a thing of the past. Slavery is very much alive and well today, as is grimly illustrated on this "portal" website about human trafficking.

Similar to the distinction between inequity and inequality is the distinction between justice and fairness and the many different definitions of justice. Justice can be defined in many different ways, again empirically or normatively. Articles which explore the nature and characteristics of inequity, inequality, injustice, and oppression appear below.

• Power Inequities
• Social Status
• Prejudice
• Principles of Justice and Fairness
  • Types of Justice
  • Distributive Justice
  • Procedural Justice
  • Restorative Justice
  • Retributive Justice
  • Justice Conflicts
• Oppression and Conflict: Introduction
  • The Nature and Origins of Oppression
  • Forms of Oppression
  • Maintaining Oppression

Long-time violence scholar Ted Robert Gurr found positive correlations between both economic and political deprivation and many forms of political violence. He attributes this to a term he coined, "relative deprivation." Relative deprivation occurs when the actual value a group receives, or expects to receive, is less than that which it feels it deserves. Here, "value" can refer to anything which is wanted, such as economic prosperity, political influence, or social status. Relative deprivation is much more likely to occur, Gurr observed, when goods and power are unevenly distributed, than when everyone is poor. If everyone is poor, people tend to think that's just "the way life is." But if some are very rich, while others, who apparently also work very hard or are otherwise deserving, are very poor and have no way to better themselves, this increases the sense of relative deprivation, which increases resentment and anger. The greater the sense of relative deprivation, Gurr argues, the greater the potential for collective violence. [3] While other authors (for instance R.J. Rummel) argue that this theory is far too simple--that many other factors contribute towards violence as well, most agree that perceived inequity and relative deprivation is often one cause of violence. 

Similarly, Barbara Harff reports that she and her colleagues in the State Failure Project identified both discrimination and exclusionary ideology among the elite as predictors of genocide and politicide.[4] Similarly, the Failed State Index also sees a link between fairness and state failure--which usually is accompanied by violence. Two of the indicators in the Index are group grievance and uneven development along identity group lines.

Ted Gurr: Why Men Rebel. Book Summary

Frustration, Deprivation, Aggression, And The Conflict Helix

The Fund For Peace Failed State Index Indicators

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• Overcoming Oppression: Awakening the Sense of Injustice
• Overcoming Oppression through Persuasion
• Overcoming Oppression with Power
   

• Empowerment
• Equalizers
• Constructive Escalation
• Nonviolence and Nonviolent Direct Action
• Coalition Building
• Activism.

• Grievance Procedures
• Designing New Dispute Resolution Systems Addressing Injustice
• Addressing Underlying Causes of Conflict
• Social Structural Change

• Development and Conflict
  • Development and Conflict In Practice: People Interviewed
  • Development and Conflict Theory
  • Development, Poverty and Conflict
  • Development, Education and Conflict
  • Development, the Environment and Conflict
  • Development, Gender and Conflict
  • Development, Health and Conflict
  • Development Interventions and Conflict

The interplay between intervention and conflict also plays out in humanitarian assistance. Look at
the essays Humanitarian Aid and Development Assistance and Important Skills for Humanitarian Professionals Working in a Contemporary Conflict Environment for more information.


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This is one area in which many organizations, government, NGOs, even businesses are working. However, the work is not always as helpful as it could be, largely because it is being done in ways that make more sense to the donors than to the recipients, and possibly even for purposes that ultimately benefit the donors more than the recipients. This is a charge that is frequently leveled at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) for example. More and more donors, however, are realizing the importance of locally-designed and driven development programs, and locally run humanitarian efforts as well. 

Some particularly large and respected development and humanitarian aid organizations are:

The International Committee of the Red Cross

World Vision



Since there are so many organizations doing such work, rather than singling out just a few, here is a link to some directories that can be used to find organizations who are working in different areas:

Directory of Development Organizations

Development Organizations

ReliefWeb


 

Compassion is the principled determination to put ourselves in the shoes of the other, and lies at the heart of all religious and ethical systems. One of the most urgent tasks of our generation is to build a global community where men and women of all races, nations and ideologies can live together in peace. In our globalized world, everybody has become our neighbor, and the Golden Rule has become an urgent necessity.

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