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Title: 1. ????? ???? ???? (strict egalitarianism)


1
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  • 1. ????? ???? ???? (strict
    egalitarianism)
  • 2. ??? ????? (the difference principle)
  • 3. ???? ????? ?? ????? (resources based
    principles)
  • 4. ???? ????? ?? ???? (welfare based
    principles)
  • 5. ???? ????? ?? ??????? (desert based
    principles)
  • 6. ???? ????? ?????? (libertarian
    principles)
  • 7. ???? ???????? (feminist principles)

2
Strict Egalitarianism
  • One of the simplest principles of distributive
    justice is that of strict or radical equality
  • The principle says that every person should have
    the same level of material goods and services
  • The principle is most commonly justified on the
    grounds that people are owed equal respect and
    that equality in material goods and services is
    the best way to give effect to this ideal
  • The two main problems with this simple principle
  • 1. the index problem the construction of
    appropriate indices for measurement
  • 2. the time frames problem the specification
    of time frames
  • There are a number of direct moral criticisms
    made of strict equality principles

3
the index problem
  • The strict equality principle says that there
    should be the same level of material goods and
    services
  • The problem is how to specify and measure levels
  • Two ways of solving the index problem in the
    strict equality
  • 1. to specify the same bundle of material
    goods and services for everyone
  • 2. to specify money as an index for the value
    of material goods and services

4
the same bundle of material goods and services
for everyone
  • To specify that everyone should have the same
    bundle of material goods and services rather than
    the same level (so everyone would have 4 oranges,
    6 apples, 1 bike, etc.)
  • The main problem with this solution
  • there will be many other allocations of
    material goods and services which will make some
    people better off without making anybody else
    worse off
  • As a consequence
  • - requiring identical bundles will make
    virtually everybody materially worse off than
    they would be under an alternative allocation
  • - so specifying that everybody must have the
    same bundle of goods does not seem to be a
    satisfactory way of solving the index problem
  • -Some index for measuring the value of goods
    and services is required.

5
money as an index for the value of material goods
and services
  • It is an imperfect index and its pitfalls are
    well-documented in most economics textbooks
  • Moreover, once the goods to be allocated are
    extended beyond material ones to include
    opportunities, etc. it needs to be combined with
    other indices.
  • - For instance, John Rawls' index of
    primary goods

6
the time frames problem
  • to specify when the pattern of distribution is
    required
  • One version of the principle of strict equality
    requires that all people should have the same
    wealth at some initial point, after which people
    are free to use their wealth in whatever way they
    choose.
  • Principles specifying initial distributions after
    which the pattern need not be preserved are
    commonly called starting-gate principles
  • The most common form of strict equality principle
    specifies that income (measured in terms of
    money) should be equal in each time-frame.
  • - though even this may lead to significant
    disparities in wealth
  • if variations in savings are permitted.

7
the moral criticisms made of strict equality
principles
  • they unduly restrict freedom
  • they do not give best effect to equal respect for
    persons
  • they conflict with what people deserve
  • - conflict with Desert-Based Principles
  • the most common criticism is a welfare-based one
  • - that everyone can be materially better off if
    incomes are not strictly equal

8
The difference principle
  • The wealth of an economy is not a fixed amount
    from one period to the next. More wealth can be
    produced
  • The most common way of producing more wealth is
    to have a system where those who are more
    productive earn greater incomes
  • The most widely discussed theory of distributive
    justice in the past three decades has been that
    proposed by John Rawls
  • - John Rawls in A Theory of Justice, (Rawls
    1971), and Political Liberalism,
  • (Rawls 1993) proposes the two principles
    of distributive justice
  • the main criticisms from the difference principle

9
the main criticisms from the difference principle
  • Advocates of strict equality argue that
    inequalities permitted by the Difference
    Principle are unacceptable even if they do
    benefit the least advantaged
  • - relative position of the least
    advantaged is more important than their absolute
    position
  • The Utilitarian objection to the Difference
    Principle is that it does not maximize utility
  • Libertarians object that the Difference Principle
    involves unacceptable infringements on liberty.
    For instance, the Difference Principle may
    require redistributive taxation to the poor, and
    Libertarians commonly object that such taxation
    involves the immoral taking of just holdings.
  • The Difference Principle is also criticized as a
    primary distributive principle on the grounds
    that it mostly ignores claims that people deserve
    certain economic benefits in light of their
    actions

10
resources based principles
  • Resource-based principles (also called Resource
    Egalitarianism) prescribe equality of resources
  • - Interestingly, resource-based principles do
    not normally prescribe a
  • patterned outcome - the idea being that
    the outcomes are determined by
  • people's free use of their resources
  • Resource-theorists claim that the Difference
    Principle is
  • a. insufficiently ambition-sensitive
  • b. insufficiently endowment-sensitive
  • The most prominent Resource-based theory,
    developed by Ronald Dworkin, (Dworkin 1981a,
    1981b).
  • The moral criticisms

11
insufficiently ambition-sensitive
  • that provided people have equal resources they
    should live with the consequences of their
    choices.
  • - for instance, that people who choose to
    work hard to earn more income
  • should not be required to subsidize those
    choosing more leisure and hence
  • less income.

12
insufficiently endowment-sensitive
  • While part of Rawls' motivation for the
    Difference principle is that people have unequal
    endowments, resource-theorists explicitly
    emphasize this feature of their theory though
    they differ on which endowments are relevant to
    questions of distributive justice
  • - They agree that, ideally, social
    circumstances over which people have no control
    should not adversely affect life prospects or
    earning capacities
  • Some resource-theorists further argue that, for
    the same sorts of reasons, unequal natural
    endowments should attract compensation.
  • - For instance, people born with handicaps,
    ill-health, or low levels of natural talents have
    not brought these circumstances upon themselves
    and hence, should not be disadvantaged in their
    life prospects.

13
Dworkin theory
  • The peoples begin with equal resources but end up
    with unequal economic benefits as a result of
    their own choices.
  • - what constitutes a just material
    distribution is to be determined by the
  • result of a thought experiment
    designed to model fair distribution.
  • - Dworkin, add to system of equal
    resources and ambition-sensitivity, a
  • sensitivity to inequalities in natural
    endowments.
  • - he notes that natural inequalities are
    not distributed according to
  • people's choices, nor are they
    justified by reference to some other
  • morally relevant fact about people.
  • -Dworkin proposes a hypothetical
    compensation scheme in which he
  • supposes that people do not know their
    own natural endowments.

14
The moral criticisms
  • It is not at all clear what would constitute an
    implementation of Resource-based theories and
    their variants in a real economy.
  • It seems impossible to measure differences in
    people's natural talents - unfortunately,
    people's talents do not neatly divide into the
    natural and developed categories.
  • A system of special assistance to the physically
    and mentally handicapped and to the ill would be
    a partial implementation of the compensation
    system, but most natural inequalities would be
    left untouched by such assistance while the
    theory requires that such inequalities be
    compensated for.
  • It is simply not clear how to implement equality
    of resources in a complex economy and hence
    despite its theoretical advantages, it is
    difficult to see it as a practical improvement on
    the Difference Principle.

15
desert based principles
  • that people deserve certain economic benefits in
    light of their actions.
  • -the various forms of welfarism treat people
    as mere containers for well-being, rather than
    purposeful beings, responsible for their actions
    and creative in their environments.
  • The different desert-based principles of
    distribution differ primarily according to what
    they identify as the basis for deserving.
  • Most contemporary proposals for desert-bases fit
    into one of three broad categories
  • 1. Contribution
  • People should be rewarded for their work
    activity according to
  • the value of their contribution to the
    social product. (Miller
  • 1976, Miller 1989, Riley)
  • 2. Effort
  • - People should be rewarded according to
    the effort they expend in their work
  • activity
  • 3.Compensation
  • - People should be rewarded according to
    the costs they incur in their work activity.
    (Sadurski, Lamont 1997)

16
libertarian principles
  • For Libertarians, just outcomes are those arrived
    at by the separate just actions of individuals a
    particular distributive pattern is not required
    for justice. Robert Nozick has advanced this
    version of Libertarianism (Nozick 1974), and is
    its most well-known contemporary advocate.
  • Nozick proposes a 3-part "Entitlement Theory
  • the principles of justice in acquisition
  • A person who acquires a holding in
    accordance with the principle of
  • justice in acquisition is entitled to
    that holding.
  • 2. the principles of justice in in transfer
  • A person who acquires a holding in
    accordance with the principle of justice
  • in transfer, from someone else entitled
    to the holding, is entitled to the
  • holding.
  • 3. No one is entitled to a holding except by
    (repeated) applications of (a) and (b).
  • The complete principle of distributive justice
    would say simply that a distribution is just if
    everyone is entitled to the holdings they possess
    under the distribution. (Nozick, p.151)

17
feminist principles
  • The distributive principles so far outlined, with
    the exception of strict egalitarianism, could be
    classified as liberal theories - they both
    inform, and are the product of, the liberal
    democracies which have emerged over the last two
    centuries.
  • John Stuart Mill in The Subjection of Women
    (1869) gives one of the clearest early feminist
    critiques of the political and distributive
    structures of the emerging liberal democracies.
  • His writings provide the starting point for many
    contemporary liberal feminists.
  • Feminists who follow Mill believe that a proper
    recognition of the position of women in society
    requires that women be given equal and the same
    rights as men have, and that these primarily
    protect their liberty and their status as equal
    persons under the law.
  • Thus, government regulation should not prevent
    women from competing on equal terms with men in
    educational, professional, marketplace and
    political institutions.
  • From the point of view of other feminisms, the
    liberal feminist position is a conservative one,
    in the sense that it requires the proper
    inclusion for women of the rights, protections,
    and opportunities previously secured for men,
    rather than a fundamental change to the
    traditional liberal position.
  • The problem for women, on this view, is not
    liberalism but the failure of society and the
    State to properly instantiate liberal principles.

18
John Stuart Mill The Subjection of Women (1869)
  • Mill argued that the principles associated with
    the developing liberalism of his time required
    equal political status for women.
  • The principles Mill explicitly mentions include
  • 1. a rejection of the aristocracy of birth,
  • 2.equal opportunity in education and in the
    marketplace,
  • 3. equal rights to hold property,
  • 4. a rejection of the man as the legal head
    of the household,
  • 5. and equal rights to political
    participation.

19
Welfare-Based Principles
  • Welfare-based principles are motivated by the
    idea that what is of primary moral importance is
    the level of welfare of people
  • Resources, equality, desert-claims, or liberty
    are only valuable in so far as they increase
    welfare, so that all distributive questions
    should be settled according to which distribution
    maximizes welfare
  • However, maximizes welfare is imprecise, so
    welfare theorists propose particular welfare
    functions to maximize. The welfare functions
    proposed vary enormously both on what will count
    as welfare and the weighting system for that
    welfare
  • Historically, Utilitarians have used the term
    utility rather than welfare and utility has
    been defined variously as pleasure, happiness, or
    preference-satisfaction. So, for instance, the
    principle for distributing economic benefits for
    Preference Utilitarians is to distribute them so
    as to maximize preference-satisfaction.
  • The welfare function for such a principle has a
    simple theoretical form it involves choosing
    that distribution maximizing the arithmetic sum
    of all satisfied preferences (unsatisfied
    preferences being negative), weighted for the
    intensity of those preferences.
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