Defining Global Justice: History of Us Int'l Labor Standards Poli

This text covers the history of the USA's role in the International Labor Organization (ILO). It covers the challenge by the President of the American Political Science Association in 2000, who urged scholars to discover how "well-structured institutions could enable the world to have a new birth of freedom". Lorenz's study describes one model of a well-structured institution. His history of the US interaction with the ILO shows how some popular organizations, including organized labour, the women's movement, academics, the legal community, and religious institutions have been able to utilize the ILO structure to counter what the APSA president called "self-serving elites and...their worst impulses". These organizations succeeded repeatedly in introducing popular visions of social justice into global economic planning and the world economy. The text reveals why the USA, despite showing exceptional restraint in domestic social policy making, played a leading role in the pursuit of just international labour standards.