Theories of Distributive Justice

1. Theories of Distributive Justice

2. Right Libertarianism Defends unlimited laissez-faire capitalism as only morally justified regime Exclusive rights to all products of person�s talents and efforts Relatively unlimited appropriation of external resources Distribution of resources is just regardless of its outcome�no matter if some have nothing at all No violence used in transactions

3. Pluralism Rejects on-dimensional theories of justice Goods distributed according to some unique criterion Criterion specific to various kinds of goods Different spheres of justice in which different criteria tell us what is morally right Rewards and punishments according to desert Jobs according to ability Political positions according to election of people Medical care according to needs Income according to success in the market, etc Persons violate justice if political power or money is used to increase size of their share of other goods Allows many small inequities but not a unique, great one Everyone has a chance to be successful in some respect Negative aspects of equalizing everyone in every respect is avoided.

4. Strict Egalitarianism Set of related theories that advocate for exactly equal amounts of resources What about those with greater needs? Lazy and idle people? Everyone should have equal chance to be happy Everyone should have equal power

5. Utilitarianism Maximum possible happiness in society as a whole Plan is to look at happiness indicators and then try to satisfy the greatest number of them Distribution of goods only if this maximizes overall happiness Approximately equal distribution has best effect Loss of happiness for the rich is smaller than the gain of happiness for the poor Redistribution of resources increases general happiness (take some from rich and give to poor) Do not advocate strict equality�adverse affect on work motivation Find a balance between factors that point toward equality and those that go against it

6. Left Libertarianism Meritocracy (merit) is the best political regime Accepts standpoint of right lib. In terms benefits of talents and efforts External or natural resources divided equally Hopes to exclude impact of �received social position� on economic destiny Tries to secure success in life to talented and industrious

7. John Rawls People make a hypothetical contract with one another to equally pursue acquisition of goods Strict equality is not valued since this would not sufficiently reward those more economically talented and affect the economic welfare of the whole A greater share of the resources is awarded the talented but only if they share some part of their extra wealth Justifies the progressive taxation of the rich

8. Ronald Dworkin Envy-test as the criterion for just distribution Distribution of goods is not satisfactory if someone �envies� the goods bundle of someone else Auction is held with equal amounts of money to bid for all the resources of their community Individual must sacrifice more of their initial resources to bid for something of greater value to others Less of their resources to bid for goods of lesser value Difference in abilities is covered by insurance to support the handicapped or less talented Some of their initial resources would be used to by the insurance�fund to support them Idea is to remove impact on goods distribution of the factors that are not under individual control to equalize the playing field