Between Facts and Norms - Contributions to a ... - Blogs Unpad

511- --- --- --Citizenship and National Identity--------contributions and claims (e.g., in a social-security or nationalinsurancesystem).(b) This counterintuitive result is a reason to abandon theutilitarian approach in favor of a model that explains special dutiesnot in terms of the reciprocal benefits of an exchange of servicesamong those belonging to a collectivity but in terms of the coordinatingcapacities of a centrally established, moral division of labor.22 For special obligations do not vary in direct proportion to thesocial distance between individuals, as though the claims of thosewho are near to us should always have priority over those who arefar. This intuition applies only within the close confines of familyand neighborhood. But it is misleading insofar as all those personsbeyond these intimate circles are equally close and distant. Normally,we perceive these "strangers" under the category of the ·"other," whether they are fellow citizens of our own nation or not.Special obligations toward "others" do not result primarily frombelonging to a concrete community. They issue rather from theabstract action coordination effected by legalinstitutions. By assigningparticular obligations to particular categories of persons oragents, these institutions socially and substantively specifY andmake binding those positive duties that otherwise remain indeterminate.On this view, special duties issue from the institutionallymediated assignment of specific responsibilities to particular addresseesactive in a moral division of labor. In the framework ofsuch a legally regulated moral division of labor, the social boundariesof a legal community have only the function of regulating thedistribution of responsibilities. This does not mean that our obligationsin general end at these boundaries. Rather, national governmentsalso have to see to it that citizens fulfill their positive dutiestoward nonmembers, such as asylum seekers. Naturally, this doesnot yet tell us what these duties consist in.(c) The moral point of view obligates us to assess this problemimpartially, and thus not just from the one-sided perspective of aninhabitant of an affluent region but also from the perspective ofimmigrants who are seeking their well-being there. In other words,they seek a free and dignified existence and not just politicalasylum. In John Rawls's well-known thought experiment of theoriginal position, individuals behind a "veil of ignorance" do not