A viable project of solidarism? The neglected contributions of John Vincent's basic rights initiative

Gonzalez-Pelaez, Ana and Buzan, Barry (2003) A viable project of solidarism? The neglected contributions of John Vincent's basic rights initiative. International Relations, 17 (3). pp. 321-339. ISSN 0047-1178

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Abstract

We analyse a part of Vincent's theory that has been neglected by the English School discourse: his idea of the right to subsistence, particularly the right to food, as the basis on which to build a cross-cultural human rights project across the societies of the world. Vincent insisted that starvation is the `resident emergency' of international society, and its elimination should be the minimum standard for the society of states to achieve legitimacy. We assess here the normative and practical viability of that enterprise as a project of solidarism in international society. Such assessment reveals that Vincent's work has made three contributions to English School thinking. In relation to the solidarist agenda, Vincent both widened the human rights agenda, and pushed the idea of developing a normative consensus around the basic right to food. More generally, his work forces the English School to think seriously about the relationship between international society and International Political Economy.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	http://ire.sagepub.com/
Additional Information:	Published 2003 © SAGE Publications. LSE has developed LSE Research Online so that users may access research output of the School. Copyright © and Moral Rights for the papers on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. Users may download and/or print one copy of any article(s) in LSE Research Online to facilitate their private study or for non-commercial research. You may not engage in further distribution of the material or use it for any profit-making activities or any commercial gain. You may freely distribute the URL (http://eprints.lse.ac.uk) of the LSE Research Online website.
Divisions:	International Relations
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory
Date Deposited:	19 Jun 2006
Last Modified:	13 Sep 2024 21:38
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/166

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