Distributive Justice

This book presents a critical appraisal of the main theories of distributive justice. It develops the view that all such theories, or at least all liberal theories, may be seen as expressions of laissez-faire with compensations for factors that they consider to be morally arbitrary. More precisely, these theories are interpreted as specifying that the outcome of individuals acting independently, without the intervention of any central authority, is just, provided that those who fare ill for reasons that the theories deem to be arbitrary, for example, because they have fewer talents than others, receive compensation from those who fare well. The principal theories discussed are Rawls’s justice as fairness, Dworkin’s equality of resources, what may loosely be called Steiner-Vallentyne common ownership theories, and Nozick’s entitlements theory. The book considers the extent, if any, to which the theories examined can accommodate both liberty and equality. It concludes that if any such accommodation is possible it will be found in common ownership theories. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Dedication 6 Table of Contents 8 Preface 11 1 Introduction 14 A simple world 14 Background 17 Four limitations 18 Some preliminaries 20 Rationality 20 Utility 21 Uncertainty 23 The Pareto principle 24 An outline 25 2 Justice as fairness 27 Two principles 27 A social contract 28 The difference principle 30 The least advantaged 33 The members of society 33 Primary goods 34 The index problem 35 Robustness 37 Choice behind the veil 38 Maximin choice 38 Special features 40 Institutions 41 Alternative arguments 42 Mutual advantage 42 Stability 44 Conclusions 46 Appendix 47 3 Equality of resources 51 Equal resources 51 Initial resources 51 Fortune 54 Handicaps 56 Talents 60 Alternative approaches 65 Equal capabilities 66 Equal opportunity for welfare 66 Equal access to advantage 67 Conclusions 68 4 Entitlements 71 The basic schema 71 A taxonomy 72 Patterns and liberty 74 Mr Chamberlain 75 Property rights 78 Self-ownership 79 Justice in acquisition 89 Acquisition 83 Freely available 85 Leaving sufficient 85 Justice in transfer 89 Duress 89 Mistake 91 A proviso 92 Justice in rectification 93 Conclusions 94 5 Common ownership 98 A framework 98 Self-ownership 100 Free association 101 Foundations 101 And justice in transfer 102 And self-ownership 103 Intervention schemes 104 Interventions on self-ownership 106 Interventions on the transfer of property 108 All gifts 108 All bequests 109 Intergenerational bequests 110 Re-gifting 112 Interventions on the holding of property 113 Land 114 Natural resources 114 All property 116 The distribution of the social fund 119 Conclusions 121 Appendix 122 6 An assessment 124 Consistency 124 Absolute and relative justice 126 An impossibility result 127 Liberty and equality 128 Bibliography 131 Index 135 "This book presents a critical appraisal of the main theories of distributive justice, that is, theories that seek to specify what is meant by a just distribution of goods among members of society. It does so in a framework in which all liberal theories of justice are seen as expressions of laissez-faire with compensations for factors that they consider to be morally arbitrary. More specifically, these theories are interpreted as specifying that the outcome of individuals acting independently, without the intervention of any central authority, is just, provided that those who fare ill for reasons that the theories deem to be arbitrary, for example, because they have fewer talents than others, receive compensation from those who fare well. The theories considered may be ordered from those which treat the most factors as being arbitrary to those which treat the least. They are Rawls's justice as fairness, Dworkin's equality of resources, what may loosely be called Steiner-Vallentyne common ownership theories, and Nozick's entitlements theory. The book considers the extent, if any, to which the theories discussed can accommodate both liberty and equality. It concludes that any such accommodation is problematic, but that if it is to be found it will be found among the common ownership theories."--Page 4 de la couverture. Provided by publisher