THE POWER OF POLITICAL ECONOMY
countries" (1) In such situations, people in developed nations treat people in developing nations with inadequate regard for the equal moral importance of their interests, taking advantage of their bargaining weaknesses due to desperate neediness. One of Miller's core examples is a case involving Chinese leather workers. Miller rightly claims that the fact that the workers are made better off than they would be without the work, voluntarily accept employment, and report satisfaction with their lives does not mitigate the moral wrong of the exploitative arrangement between manufacturers and laborers. Miller's focus on exploitation has great intuitive appeal. But Miller's discussion leaves some unanswered questions. It seems plausible that once the basic needs of the leather workers are met they are not being exploited in a morally objectionable way just by being made to do something they would not do if they were not in a (relatively) weak bargaining position. This view is at least suggested by Miller's characterization of the leather workers' situation as "stultifying" (64) and his claim that improving wages and working conditions would avoid the wrongdoing of exploitation. If Miller has a basicneeds threshold beyond which exploitation as he defines it is not morally objectionable, then clearly much hinges on how robust a conception of "basic needs" Miller has in mind. Miller's Globalizing Justice is an important contribution to thought about transnational justice. The book's combination of fresh, compelling theoretical argument and deep engagement in the realities of global political and economic life are a paradigm for philosophical work on this subject, and indeed for applied ethics in general.
The Review of Politics