University of Twente Student Theses
The European Union pursuing a sound ethical strategy in development policy: a contradiction in terms?
Seifert, J. (2015) The European Union pursuing a sound ethical strategy in development policy: a contradiction in terms?
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| Abstract: | To answer the study’s question ‘The European Union pursuing a sound ethical strategy in development policy: a contradiction in terms?’, the EU development policy’s legal framework, the Lisbon Treaty, is representatively analyzed on its compliance with the three operationalized dimensions ‘motives’, ‘means’ and ‘consequences’. These operationalized dimensions mirror the theoretical framework, the concept of ‘tridimensional ethics’ by Joseph Nye, which enables to evaluate whether an action in general or a policy in specific is considered ‘ethical’. To test if the EU development policy’s legal framework is considered ‘ethical’, a ‘most similar systems’ design is utilized, which generates the following two cases: the first generalized theoretical case involves the operationalized dimensions as independent variables which cause a sound ethical strategy in development policy, the dependent variable. The second specified practical case analyzes if the independent variables of the first generalized theoretical case can (not) be found in the EU development policy’s legal framework and, therefore, do (not) cause a sound ethical strategy. The study’s results stress two major points: firstly, the study is of scientific and political relevance because it exceeds the debate on whether the EU is a normative power or not. Moreover, it has generated a research approach for assessing the morality of any entity’s action in a given policy arena. Secondly, the EU development policy’s legal framework does not cause a sound ethical strategy and, therefore, confirms the assumption that the EU pursuing a sound ethical strategy in development policy is a contradiction in terms. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Bachelor) |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Subject: | 08 philosophy, 70 social sciences in general, 89 political science |
| Programme: | European Studies BSc (56627) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/67110 |
| Export this item as: | BibTeX EndNote HTML Citation Reference Manager |
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