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Abstract
Should human beings who have been granted basic rights be allowed to bargain them away? In some countries, most prominently in China, special export zones exist where workers are required to give up several of their rights in order to be employed. Are there serious objections to such renouncements? The first part of this paper discusses some of the pros and cons. In the second part, the results of a questionnaire experiment are reported where the students were asked to evaluate a situation where the reinstatement of basic human rights had to be weighed against an aid programme of economic reconstruction leading to growth and greater efficiency. As far as German students are concerned, the issue of exercising basic rights has lost quite a bit of its original support over a period of roughly 15 years. Results from other European nations are also reported.
Acknowledgements
I have greatly benefited from the comments and criticism of two anonymous referees of this journal and the suggestions made by Henry S. Richardson. Helpful discussions with Kaushik Basu and Julia and Sanjay Reddy are gratefully acknowledged.
Notes
1. Dorman (Citation2007) calls such a position the “developmentalist perspective”. This position argues that worker rights may be counterproductive in developing countries and may impede growth. If growth came about, it would be able to alleviate some of the given working conditions, at least in the longer run. Dorman argues that worker rights are inherently developmental, promote development and “help recast development as the enhancement of human capabilities, in the sense of Sen (Citation2001)” (2007, p. 375).