Exploitation as Unfairness Through Power

Abstract

This chapter captures trade justice in terms of exploitation, a proposal only as good as the underlying account of exploitation. Exploitation is one of the great buzzwords of political thinking on the left. The original Marxist notion was based on the labor theory of value, which most thinkers in that domain no longer endorse. But the kind of unfair advantage-taking the notion covers has continued to engage activists and philosophers alike. This chapter surveys the lay of the land, with a focus on recent work, and introduces a new proposal on exploitation. The proposal offers the most plausible response to disagreement between various conceptions of exploitation and identifies a structural unity across them. The chapter offers a proposal for how to think about exploitation that combines the advantages of competing conceptions while avoiding their shortcomings. Exploitation, on this general ecumenical account, is unfairness through power. The version that applies to trade characterizes exploitation as power-induced failure of reciprocity. Importantly, non-individual actors like groups or institutions may exploit or be exploited.