Economic Justice

About: Economic Justice is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 41600 publications have been published within this topic receiving 661535 citations.

Political Ideas and Concepts: An Introduction

Abstract: Introduction - Politics, Government and the State - Sovereignty, the Nation and Supranationalism - Power, Authority and Legitimacy - Law, Order and Justice - Rights, Obligations and Citizenship - Democracy, Representation and the Public Interest - Human Nature, the Individual and Society - Freedom, Tolerance and Liberation - Equality, Social Justice and Welfare - Property, Planning and the Market - Reaction, Reform and Revolution

Social Consensus on Norms of Justice: Should the Punishment Fit the Crime?

Abstract: Social consensus on norms of justice has long been of concern to sociologist. The present paper presents a model of justice norms as congnitions and tests the degree of cognitive consensus on the norm of just deserts (i.e., "letting the punishment fit the crime"). It is argued that consensus on justice norms should be tested using a combination of within-respondent and between-respondent techniques. Such tests can (1) simultaneously reveal the presence of consensus on the justice principle involved and on the evaluation of the specific social stimuli presented, (2) facilitate demographic comparisons on adhering to principle or agreeing on facts, and (3) reveal conflicts between these two versions of consensus. For testing the norm of just deserts, ratio scale measures of crime seriousness and punishment severity were employed, and a formula derived from both equity theory and psycho-physics was utilized in model fitting. Results from a sample survey indicated dramatically strong use of the principle of just deserts by members of the public but less adherence to just deserts by demographically disadvantaged (low-income or black) respondents. A path model of the relation between aggregate and individual scores further demonstrated a fundamental tension between the two versions of normative consensus, in that the more respondents used the principle the more systematically they deviated from the group average response. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of both the substantive findings and the new methodologies employed for understanding normative consensus and the assessment of justice norms.

Self-sufficient Arguments in Political Rhetoric: Constructing Reconciliation and Apologizing to the Stolen Generations

Abstract: This article focuses on the rhetorical and argumentative organization of a major political address by the Prime Minister of Australia on the topics of reconciliation and apologizing to the Stolen Generations of Indigenous peoples. The analysis documents the interpretative repertoires that were mobilized to argue around these sensitive, controversial issues in a public forum, in particular the deployment of discursive formulations of `togetherness', of `culture' and of `nation'. The analysis also demonstrates the ways in which a limited number of rhetorically self-sufficient arguments, identified in recent studies of the language of contemporary racism, was mobilized in this important public speech. We argue that the flexible use of such rhetorically self-sufficient arguments concerning practicality, equality, justice and progress worked to build up a particular version of reconciliation which functions to sustain and legitimate existing inequalities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Australia.

Beyond the Social Contract: Capabilities and Global Justice

Abstract: The dominant theory of justice in the western tradition of political philosophy is the social contract theory, which sees principles of justice as the outcome of a contract people make, for mutual advantage, to leave the state of nature and govern themselves by law. Such theories have recently been influential in thinking about global justice. I examine that tradition, focusing on Rawls, its greatest modern exponent; I shall find it wanting. Despite their great strengths in thinking about justice, contractarian theories have some structural defects that make them yield very imperfect results when we apply them to the world stage. More promising results are given by a version of the capabilities approach, which suggests a set of basic human entitlements, similar to human rights, as a minimum of what justice requires for all. But among the traits characteristic of the human being is an impelling desire for fellowship, that is for common life, not of just any kind, but a peaceful life, and organized according to the measure of his intelligence, with those who are of his kind ... Stated as a universal truth, therefore, the assertion that every animal is impelled by nature to seek only its own good cannot be conceded. (Grotius, On the Law of War and Peace) Global inequalities in income increased in the 20th century by orders of magnitude out of proportion to anything experienced before. The distance between the incomes of the richest and poorest country was about 3 to 1 in 1820, 35 to 1 in 1950, 44 to 1 in 1973 and 72 to 1 in 1992. (Human Development Report 2000, United Nations Development Programme) 1. A World of Inequalities A child born in Sweden today has a life expectancy at birth of 79.7 years. A child born in Sierra Leone has a life expectancy at birth of 38.9 years.1 In the USA, GDP per capita is US$34 142; in Sierra Leone, GDP per capita is US$490. Adult literacy rates in the top 20 nations are around 99%; in Sierra Leone, the literacy rate is 36%. In 26 nations, the adult literacy rate is under 50%. The world contains inequalities that are morally alarming, and the gap between richer and poorer nations is widening. The chance of being born in one nation rather than another pervasively determines the life chances of every child who is born. Any *Martha C. Nussbaum, University of Chicago Law School, 1111 E 60th Street, Chicago, IK, 60637, USA. ISSN 1360-0818 print/ISSN 1469-9966 online/04/010003-16  2004 International Development Centre, Oxford DOI: 10.1080/1360081042000184093