RAWLS AND HIS RADICAL CRITICS: THE PROBLEM OF EQUALITY
Amdur, Robert
Few books in the history of political theory have made so strong an impression as A Theory of Justice, by John Rawls. Rawls's book, published in 1971, is an effort to deal with a question of...
...Since self-respect is the main primary good," Rawls argues, the parties to the original contract "would not agree...
...in the final version, only basic liberties are guaranteed...
...or perhaps they are willing, as they should be, to accept some degree of inequality if the only alternative is a permanent dictatorship...
...2. John Cobbs, "Egalitarianism: Threat to a Free Market," Business Week, December 1, 1975, p. 64...
...He suggests that such matters be left to political sociologists...
...In such a situation we might be willing to concede that success is related to merit, that people who produced more goods really did deserve to keep the fruits of their labor...
...And no one deserves to be rewarded for achievements that can be explained, in large part, in terms of family background...
...The assumption is extremely important...
...The experience of Western democracies during World War II and of various Third World nations in the more recent past strongly suggests that high levels of solidarity are possible in inegalitarian societies...
...In Gordon's view, this "is in no sense a 'strongly egalitarian' theory of justice...
...This is not true of any of the other socially useful activities for which material rewards are usually offered...
...To understand why Rawls has reached such strongly egalitarian conclusions, it is useful to examine some of his major assumptions...
...Finally, in section IV, I ask whether Rawls's principles can be satisfied under capitalism...
...And why assume that those with scarce natural talents will require special compensation to induce them to use their talents in ways that help the less fortunate...
...According to Rawls the major institutions of society — define men's rights and duties and influence their life-prospects, what they can expect to be and how well they can hope to do...
...36 Generalizing Titmuss's argument, we might suggest the following propositions: when material rewards are available to those willing to engage in socially useful behavior, and when those rewards are seen as morally legitimate, people will demand them...
...According to Cobbs, Rawls had committed himself not just to equal rights of equal opportunity, but also to equality of condition: "Equal opportunity is a delusion unless it produces equality of results...
...The better endowed are more likely, other things equal, to strive conscientiously, and there seems to be no way to discount for their greater good fortune...
...This conclusion is supported by the results of interviews with a sample of donors...
...But he also makes a third proposal that is far less modest: "property and wealth must be kept widely distributed...
...Avoiding the highly deterministic view implied in Rawls's remarks on desert, we might agree that people who start out with the same advantages should be held responsible for their own successes and failures...
...Consider the following elaboration of the argument put forward by Richard Titmuss in his remarkable book, The Gift Relationship: From Human Blood to Social Policy...
...If this is so, Rawls can say, all the better...
...Even if we agree that large numbers of people (free from the stifling influence of material incentives) will spontaneously visit their local Red Cross when blood supplies are low, it does not follow that they will voluntarily make sacrifices of a much greater magnitude, just because a need exists...
...Summing up, he suggested that Rawls's book "is consecrated to as radical a form of egalitarianism as may be found anywhere outside the pages of the Social Contract...
...33.Crocker, "Equality, Solidarity, and Rawls' Maximin...
...10 According to the difference principle, the new distribution is clearly superior to the old...
...Is this critique of Rawls's theory convincing...
...Rawls makes a radical 327 claim concerning individual responsibility...
...It would then be necessary to insist that the liberties of citizenship are simply not as important as Rawls suggests they are...
...But from Titmuss's perspective, matters are more complicated...
...It is up to them to provide some evidence for the assertions (a) that Rawlsian institutions would thwart altruistic impulses, and (b) that other institutions would be more likely to promote altruism...
...Not only is it the most important...
...Rawls never gives them a chance to make that decision...
...35.Richard M. Titmuss, The Gift Relationship: From Human Blood to Social Policy (New York: Vintage Books, 1972...
...But it seems reasonable to say that the burden of proof should rest with those who would make such an argument...
...It's hard enough to get blood with material rewards, he would say...
...Many liberal theorists have assumed a basic human equality: they have agreed that the rules of justice should apply to everyone...
...It may turn out that people are motivated to use their talents to help the less fortunate simply by feelings of altruism...
...25.Rawls, A Theory of Justice, p. 74...
...But if he wants to insist that the only "genuine" solidarity is solidarity based on equality of wealth, his argument has become circular...
...And it is arguably the most radical: at any rate, conservatives have treated A Theory of Justice as a revolutionary document, dangerously egalitarian in its implications...
...At several points in A Theory of Justice, Rawls introduces additional considerations designed to eliminate inequalities otherwise compatible with the difference principle...
...For it is likely that fair equality of opportunity is "put in jeopardy when inequalities of wealth exceed a certain limit...
...Since the priority of liberty is one of the most important features of Rawls's theory, this is clearly a serious problem...
...According to Joel Feinberg, a person can deserve some sort of treatment only "in virtue of some possessed characteristic or prior activity...
...We are likely to conclude that the same society might function with fewer inequalities if it were organized differently...
...This does not mean simply that positions are open in a formal sense, but rather that— those with similar abilities and skills should have similar life chances...
...Unequal shares may provide "various incentives which succeed in eliciting more productive efforts...
...Titmuss ends his study with the stark conclusion that "the commercialization of blood donor relationships represses the expression of altruism...
...3. Self-respect...
...2" If society permits inequalities in rewards, rights, or social position, then those who are most advantaged will pass their advantages on to their children...
...He cannot claim to have shown "that just principles of distribution are more egalitarian" than the principles put forward in A Theory of Justice...
...For clearly no one deserves to be born into a wealthy, cultured, or wellconnected family...
...He believes that society must devote resources to compensatory education for those from disadvantaged backgrounds...
...People who under different circumstances would have given voluntarily now expect to be paid for their donations— or, in many cases, decide not to donate blood at all...
...Rawls's book, published in 1971, is an effort to deal with a question of enormous importance: how will a just society distribute wealth and income, liberties, opportunities, and positions of authority...
...Second, social and economic inequalities are to be arranged so that they are both (a) to the greatest benefit of the least advantaged and (b) attached to positions open to all under conditions of fair equality of opportunity...
...22.Ibid., p. 534...
...This is an empirical question...
...Basic political liberties "lose much of their value whenever those who have greater means are permitted to control the course of public debate" and therefore acquire a "preponderant weight in settling social questions...
...Brian Barry insists that once we accept Rawls's assumptions concerning psychology and economics, "we must be prepared for large differentials in post-tax income...
...How can a society guarantee the fair value of liberty...
...In at least some cases, the availability and moral legitimacy of material rewards will generate a desire for those rewards...
...These are especially deep inequalities...
...Finally, one might be tempted to make an argument based on Rawls's discussion of the purpose of inequalities in a just society...
...In section III, I ask whether it is still possible to criticize Rawls from an egalitarian direction, and I discuss several ways in which this might be done...
...This holds that inequalities are to be permitted only when they improve the prospects of the worst off...
...225-26...
...41 . John Rawls, "Fairness to Goodness," Philosophical Review, (84) October 1975, p. 546...
...The reason for deserving something must be seen as "appropriate" to the thing deserved...
...A person's lesser position as measured by the index of objective primary goods may be so great as to wound his self-respect...
...34.Frank Parkin, Class Inequality and Political Order (New York: Praeger, 1971), p. 183...
...3 After reading these comments, one might expect to discover that Rawls's book was received enthusiastically on the left...
...This is subject, of course, to the qualifications discussed in section I.) If we accept this response, if we are not willing to endorse a principle demanding absolute equality no matter what the consequences, is there any way to develop an egalitarian critique of the theory...
...Altruistic impulses do not seem to be as widespread in Britain as Titmuss's discussion would suggest...
...30 He quite pointedly does not include what might be called economic freedoms: freedom to own productive property, freedom of contract, freedom to appropriate what one has produced, freedom to inherit or to leave one's possessions to persons of one's choice...
...Instead of criticizing Rawls as a "bourgeois ideologist," they should seek to demonstrate that the deep principles of justice that he has formulated can be satisfied only in a socialist society...
...27.Ibid., p. 312...
...The basic structure is the primary subject of justice because its effects are so profound and present from the start...
...333 5. Norman Daniels, "Equal Liberty and Unequal Worth of Liberty," Reading Rawls, ed...
...Even if we ignore this issue, Titmuss does not begin to demonstrate that the availability of material rewards for blood donation rauses a decline in altruism...
...Adoption of the difference principle amounts to a public acknowledgment that it is legitimate to expect rewards for activities that improve the prospects of the worst off...
...When these features are understood, it will be difficult to deny what conservative writers have asserted: that the theory is highly egalitarian in its implications...
...When a society faces a choice like this one, Rawls's theory will demand a highly inegalitarian distribution of wealth and income...
...438-61...
...I see no reason for thinking that maximizing the wealth of the poor would require "drastic" inequalities, though Rawls clearly believes that it would require inequalities of some sort: else there would be no reason for proposing the difference principle...
...I 2 Later on, in his discussion of equal liberty, he elaborates this position...
...But from our perspective, matters are more complicated...
...1. All human beings share a basic equality insofar as they are "moral persons...
...This in turn means that each of Rawls's hypothetical contractees can demand rules likely to maximize his own index of primary goods...
...I 4 The branch of government in charge of distribution should limit inequalities that threaten the value of liberty...
...This is essentially what Lawrence Crocker does in his article published in Philosophy and Public Affairs in 1977...
...Where there is no possibility of material gain from blood donation, altruism will lead substantial numbers of people to give freely in order to help their fellow men and women...
...Public acknowledgment of the difference principle will encourage a "market mentality" among people who might otherwise perform useful services out of altruism or a sense of duty...
...It may mean, as Barber suggests, that Rawls "sees nothing to choose between capitalism and socialism...
...For Rawls, such a demand is irrational...
...Another way to criticize Rawls's position would be to argue that liberty can and should be sacrificed to achieve greater economic equality...
...I suspect the answer is no...
...Daniels went on to argue that "the need for a systematic Marxist response is especially great, since Rawls's work . . . has such ideological importance...
...Nevertheless, the two principles clearly would permit some disparities in wealth and income...
...Perhaps an argument of this sort can be made persuasively...
...Couldn't one point to the other 94 percent as evidence that the British are not very altruistic despite the obvious need for blood...
...Viewed from the inside, a Rawlsian society will appear to be permitting only those inequalities truly necessary to maximize the expectations of the worst off...
...By assuming that inequalities are transmitted to future generations, Rawls creates an additional presumption against present inequalities of wealth...
...Suppose, after doing that, the society in question instituted progressive taxation and a system of transfer payments...
...26.Ibid., p. 104...
...This would, of course, entail a direct attack on Rawls's views concerning the priority of liberty...
...When Rawls lists what he takes to be basic liberties, he includes the right to vote and to be eligible for public office, freedom of speech and assembly, liberty of conscience, freedom of thought, along with freedom of the person and the right to hold personal property, and finally freedom from arbitrary arrest and seizure...
...Ultimately, however, he concedes that relative levels may be crucial to self-respect...
...6 According to Scott Gordon, Rawls "recognizes that nothing in his theory guarantees that his optimum degree of inequality would not be unacceptably large when viewed by the 'considered judgment' of common ethical sentiment...
...8.John Rawls, A Theory of Justice (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1971), pp...
...9 The problem, according to leftist critics, is that we still have no guarantee that disparities 324 in wealth will remain small...
...But, the critic can argue, these remarks suggest a remarkably narrow (bourgeois) view of the world...
...Others, while denying that the market can achieve this happy result, still believe that people deserve to be rewarded according to their effort, or their contribution to the social product...
...for his character depends in large part upon fortunate family and social circumstances for which he can claim no credit...
...Most often, however, they have focused on a single issue: what level of inequality would be permitted by Rawls's principles...
...Three of these influence the argument for the principles...
...How might it go...
...But this choice is not final for, on reflection, the contractees will ask: "If there are inequalities . . . that work to make everyone better off in comparison with the benchmark of initial equality, why not permit them...
...They might do so by providing "incentives which succeed in eliciting more productive efforts," or by covering the costs of training (Rawls presumably has in mind doctors, managers, technicians, and the like), or by otherwise inducing people with scarce natural talents to use these "in ways that help the less fortunate as well...
...In his section on "The Basis of Equality," Rawls suggests that all human beings are entitled to treatment in accordance with the principles of justice...
...They also know that there are certain "primary goods" it is rational for every person to want, because these goods help us advance our ends, whatever those ends may be...
...And finally: Assuming that capitalism and socialism are equally acceptable in terms of their effects on self-respect, liberty, and equal opportunity, then the principles of justice would require socialism if a socialist economy were capable of providing the worst off with a higher level of wealth and income than could be provided under any other system...
...Here, as in the case of the value of liberty, Rawls makes some (modest) suggestions...
...To some extent it was: a few socialists had high praise for A Theory of Justice...
...To be entitled to equal justice one need only display "the capacity for moral personality...
...Given the intimate interdependence of political and economic institutions in the West, and given the undeniable culpability of capitalism in the history of Western injustice, a theory of justice that sees nothing to choose between capitalism and socialism is either extravagantly formalistic to the point of utter irrelevance, or is a badly disguised rationalization for one particular socio-economic system, namely "propertyowning democracy...
...He imagines his hypothetical contractees making a provisional choice in favor of equal distribution...
...Surely, someone who had looked only at the United States would deny that a purely voluntary system could work...
...The intuitive notion here is that this structure contains various social positions and that men born into different positions have different expectations of life...
...Elsewhere, in Britain for example, the sale of blood is prohibited by law, and blood for transfusions is secured entirely through voluntary donations...
...First, it is necessary to ask whether there is reason to think that a society with a roughly egalitarian distribution of wealth would ever need to institute vast inequalities in order to achieve economic growth...
...Similarly, why assume that incentives are necessary to elicit more productive efforts...
...29 Even abolition of the family would probably not be sufficient to prevent transmission of benefits from one generation to the next...
...10.Lawrence Crocker, "Equality, Solidarity, and Rawls' Maximin," Philosophy and Public Affairs, (6) Spring 1977, pp...
...In general, however, radical writers were highly critical—expecting no favors from the philosophical establishment to which Rawls obviously belongs...
...This is clearly something of a surprise...
...Thus, all human beings are moral persons and all are equally entitled to treatment according to the principles of justice...
...They suggest that it is possible to turn the theory into an argument for socialism...
...13.Ibid., p. 225...
...35 Titmuss begins by noting that societies obtain blood for transfusion in two ways...
...In all sectors of society there should be roughly equal prospects of culture and achievement for everyone similarly motivated and endowed...
...Nevertheless, it does seem possible to talk, roughly, about the level of inequality the theory would permit...
...But ultimately, those with scarce talents are bound to conclude that there is nothing wrong with receiving special rewards, as long as they are in fact engaged in activities that help the worst off...
...Rawls assumes that virtually everyone possesses the necessary capacities, though in actual societies these capacities may not be realized, due to "unjust or impoverished social circumstances or fortuitous contingencies...
...men's sense of their own worth may depend, in part, "upon their institutional position and their income share...
...Many of these writers seem to believe that liberties may be curtailed during a transition period of some sort...
...The British system produces enough blood to meet medical needs, and the proportion of blood contaminated by disease is far smaller than in the United States...
...Since they cannot hope for any direct or indirect benefits, it would seem that British donors must be motivated entirely by feelings of altruism or social responsibility...
...38 Perhaps commercial blood banks arose in the United States precisely because Americans were not sufficiently altruistic to give blood without compensation...
...He provides one example of such an argument: the principles of justice would require some sort of socialism "if the stability of a well ordered society could be achieved in no other way...
...I have already suggested that basic liberties are of limited value, unless accompanied by a fairly egalitarian distribution of wealth...
...Rawls has been widely criticized for suggesting that relative levels of wealth and income are of no moral significance...
...I 3 Even if the constitution guarantees equal political freedom for all, the liberties of the majority would then be significantly devalued...
...9. Ibid., p. 277...
...he argues that they would necessarily choose two basic principles: First, each person is to have a right to the most extensive total system of basic equal liberties compatible with a similar system of liberty for all...
...In case of conflicts, the first principle is given "lexical priority" over the second...
...from the standpoint of the theory of justice alone, various structures would appear to satisfy its principles...
...For it appears that there are people who will not give voluntarily in a society where it is legitimate to sell blood, but will donate voluntarily when payment for blood is not seen as legitimate...
...to count this subjective loss as irrelevant...
...According to this view, Rawls's motivational assumptions are transformed into a self-fulfilling prophecy...
...11.Stephan Thernstrom, The Other Bostonians (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1973), p. 333...
...As noted earlier, he suggests that inequalities may be necessary to "cover the costs of 330 training and to encourage the efforts of learning, as well as to direct ability where it best furthers the common interest...
...30.Ibid., p. 61...
...While one might question the argument with which Rawls justifies the exclusion, it would be odd to call that argument an example of "liberal ideology...
...Even the willingness to make an effort, to try, and so to be deserving in the ordinary sense is itself dependent on happy family and social circumstances...
...A strong commitment to equality of opportunity may limit the advantage of being born into a privileged family...
...He assumes that only actions can serve as legitimate reasons for deserving something, and that these actions must be performed voluntarily...
...In Class Inequality and Political Order, Frank Parkin puts forward one version of the theory underlying this view: Egalitarianism seems to require a political system in which the state is able continually to hold in check those social and occupational groups which, by virtue of their skills or education or personal attributes, might otherwise attempt to stake claims to a disproportionate share of society's rewards...
...27 People are responsible neither for their natural assets nor for their development of those assets, neither for their efforts nor for their contributions...
...8. Brian Barry, The Liberal Theory of Justice (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1973), p. 156...
...277-79...
...These men and women are deprived of certain "morally irrelevant" information: they know nothing about their particular abilities, wants, or positions in society...
...The major primary goods are liberties, opportunities, wealth, income, and self-respect...
...This, the radical critic might argue, is precisely what will happen in a Rawlsian society...
...For our purposes the most important part of the theory is part (a) of the second principle, which Rawls calls "the difference principle...
...Early in the book Rawls notes that "there is a maximum gain permitted to the most favored on the assumption that, even if the difference principle would allow it, there would be unjust effects on the political system...
...17.Ibid., p. 302...
...To the best of my knowledge," Kristol added, "no serious political philosopher has even offered such a proposition before...
...In section II, I examine some of the egalitarian assumptions on which the theory rests, for Rawls's critics have gone wrong in part because they have either ignored these assumptions or minimized their importance...
...Only about 6 percent of the eligible population donates blood at all...
...Philosophers, however, use the term in a more restrictive sense...
...Writing in Commentary in 1972, Irving Kristol summarized Rawls's position: "a social order is just and legitimate only to the degree that it is directed to the redress of inequality...
...But none seems prepared to argue that a just society, once established, should permanently suppress the basic liberties of its members...
...It is especially interesting that the British system of blood acquisition seems to be at least as efficient as its American counterpart...
...Is it plausible to think that such a policy would have so destructive an effect on incentives as to lead to a return to the status quo ante...
...Desert implies responsibility...
...As far as I am aware, however, none of Rawls's radical critics has attempted to construct such an argument...
...But Rawls goes further, for he assumes that those individuals who are entitled to treatment according to the principles of justice are also entitled to be represented when the principles of justice are chosen...
...None of them has suggested that the liberties Rawls calls basic ought to be sacrificed for the sake of greater material equality...
...Only by placing a high value on political freedom and a low value on economic freedom can he argue for greater material equality by appealing to the need to preserve the fair value of liberty...
...Second, and more serious, even if Titmuss's argument works for blood donation, it does not follow that it can be generalized...
...The legitimacy of payment as incentive to engage in useful activities will in itself raise the level of incentives needed to generate those activities...
...But based on the sorts of evidence available, it hardly seems that they are likely to be more stringent than the limits imposed by selfrespect, equal opportunity, and the need to preserve the fair value of liberty...
...26 . . . Once again...
...Why assume that people will require special premiums to "cover the costs of training and to encourage the efforts of learning...
...But arguments of this sort become far more 328 difficult when people are born at different starting points...
...In some countries, including the United States, blood is obtained primarily by means of the commercial market...
...There is an obvious answer: one could simply demand that all primary goods be distributed equally...
...So far, none of Rawls's critics has attempted it...
...without those rewards it would be impossible...
...Crocker can argue that Rawls reaches, roughly, the right conclusions, though not for all the right reasons...
...For this reason, the original contractees "would wish to avoid at almost any cost the conditions that undermine selfrespect...
...In this way the institutions of society favor certain starting places over others...
...The expectations of those with the same abilities and aspirations should not be affected by their social class...
...In his essay "Fairness to Goodness," Rawls suggests that the question need not remain open indefinitely: there are arguments that (if true) would lead to the conclusion that capitalism and justice are incompatible...
...But what does it mean to say that the question is "left open...
...Suppose we could be sure that every member of a particular generation began with the same advantages (like men in Locke's state of nature, immediately after the invention of money...
...Ultimately, however, this criticism is less radical and less damaging than Crocker thinks...
...To deserve something "one must satisfy certain conditions of worthiness...
...Rawls wants to derive principles of justice from the hypothetical agreement of rational men and women, each concerned to further his or her own interests...
...Not only are they pervasive...
...The final goal of these adjustments is to maximize "the worth to the least advantaged of the complete scheme of equal liberty shared by all...
...Each, whatever his talents or accomplishments, may hold out for arrangements that will buttress his self-esteem...
...Nothing in Rawls's theory commits him to the view that large incentives will be necessary to induce people to undertake those activities that improve the prospects of the worst off...
...At the least, an argument such as the one just outlined would face several difficulties...
...it is certainly arguable, though Crocker does not in fact argue it, that 329 society ought to be organized, so far as possible, to encourage the development (or prevent the erosion) of "solidary dispositions...
...Strict meritocracy—the notion of merit as moral worth—is ruled out from the beginning...
...There is only one way to modify the society to produce a different distribution...
...16.Ibid., p. 205...
...20 Throughout much of the book he does indeed adopt this view as a "simplifying device"—he assumes that when we maximize a person's wealth and income, we are maximizing that person's "expectations...
...Rawls's second principle demands that social and economic inequalities be arranged so that they are "attached to offices and positions open to all under conditions of fair equality of opportunity...
...This means that inequalities of wealth, income, and authority must be arranged so as not to interfere with the equal liberties required by the first principle...
...Even as their wealth and income continue to increase, members of the worst off class will suffer from relative deprivation, or what Rawls calls "excusable envy...
...In trying to answer this question, Rawls draws upon several disciplines and a variety of philosophical traditions...
...I 6 325 2. Fair equality of opportunity...
...332 Taken together, these considerations provide gounds for skepticism about the possibilities of using an argument like Titmuss's in order to criticize Rawls...
...4. Political liberties, the liberties of citizenship, are more basic than other liberties...
...33 Crocker's main contention does not seem unreasonable...
...Most of us would probably agree that solidarity (shared sentiments, cooperative activity, a willingness to make sacrifices for the common good) is a desirable feature of social life...
...Under the difference principle the state will be required to provide transfer payments designed to ensure that "the total income of the least advantaged (wages plus transfers) will be such as to maximize their long-run expectations...
...4 Over the years, leftist writers have advanced a wide variety of criticisms of Rawls's theory, on a number of different levels...
...Iv Finally, based on the considerations discussed in this essay, can we say that Rawls's theory requires socialism...
...5 Other left critics have agreed...
...Rawls attempts to reconstruct the deliberations of his hypothetical contractees...
...40.Benjamin R. Barber, "Justifying Justice: Problems of Psychology, Politics, and Measurement in Rawls," Reading Rawls, ed...
...40 NOTES 1. Irving Kristol, "About Equality," Commentary, November 1972, p. 41...
...3. If inequalities are permitted in a society, they will inevitably be transmitted from one generation to the next...
...And if this is so, it is no longer possible to make a case for differential rewards according to desert...
...perhaps they fear to engage it...
...I want to look at five particularly important assumptions...
...However, they do know some very general laws and facts about human psychology and the way societies work...
...He does not list these limitations in any one place, nor does he discuss them in detail...
...343-62...
...but they affect men's initial chances in life...
...But Rawls assumes that equal opportunity is at best a partial solution, for "it is impossible in practice to secure equal chances of achievement and culture for those similarly endowed...
...excluded by the priority of liberty...
...32 In Rawls's view no reasonable person will refuse to accept inequalities that improve everyone's prospects...
...1. The fair value of liberty...
...24 Rawls goes further than this...
...0 3. Robert Nisbet, "The Pursuit of Equality," Public Interest, Spring 1974, p. 114...
...Is it still possible, then, to criticize the theory from an egalitarian direction...
...Consider the following exotic but useful example: We have a community in which there are no significant social divisions...
...12.Rawls, A Theory of Justice, p. 81...
...he simply assumes that the liberties of citizenship are in some sense more fundamental than the socalled economic freedoms...
...19 A just society will take measures to "prevent this limit from being exceeded," even if that entails eliminating inequalities otherwise compatible with the difference principle...
...7. Scott Gordon, "John Rawls's Difference Principle, Utilitarianism, and the Optimum Degree of Inequality," Journal of Philosophy, (70) May 10, 1973, p. 280...
...This is not to say that Rawls's hypothetical contractees make a decision against desert...
...4. Norman Daniels, "Introduction," Reading Rawls, ed...
...Surely that is what Rawls's radical critics should attempt to do...
...it is, in a sense, lexically prior to all the others...
...There is, I believe, only one way in which the radical critic can undercut Rawls's response...
...Whatever sorts of talents Rawls has in mind here—managerial or entrepreneurial abilities, a talent for inventing new productive processes, the skill of a surgeon—why not assume that a desire to help others (or a desire to be recognized as one who helps others) will be an adequate incentive...
...One possibility would be to introduce an additional consideration designed to limit the permissible level of inequality...
...In a just society, levels of inequality will depend on how sensitive those near the bottom are to the existence of large disparities...
...But he does state them explicitly and, since they are not inconsistent with other parts of the theory, there is every reason for us to take these statements as definitive...
...But again he recognizes that this may not be sufficient...
...As Kenneth Arrow points out in his review of The Gift Relationship, Titmuss's data can be explained in a variety of ways...
...Like his explicit limits on inequality these assumptions are easily overlooked, in part because they are scattered throughout the book, and in part because Rawls does not discuss them in detail...
...265-66...
...45 . Ibid., pp...
...Perhaps there are some limits to the level of inequality compatible with social solidarity...
...Perhaps altruism could do the job as well...
...Educational institutions may attempt to encourage altruistic behavior, and to some extent they may succeed...
...John Cobbs, in an essay in Business Week, described Rawls as one of the principal "gurus" of the new movement for equality...
...Daniels believes that Rawls fits squarely into the liberal tradition: he may hope that the inequalities permitted by his theory will not be large, but "he offers no argument . . . capable of demonstrating, or even designed to 323 demonstrate, the impossibility or improbability that large or significant inequalities will always fail to satisfy [the principles of justice...
...When we say that a person deserves something we generally mean either that he is entitled to it under a system of rules, or that he has a right to it, or that he simply ought to have it, for whatever reason...
...By guaranteeing every person representation at the meeting where the principles of justice are to be chosen, Rawls establishes a strong initial presumption in favor of substantive equality...
...Perhaps they reject Parkin's argument...
...This assumption will not lead to egalitarian conclusions unless self-respect depends, in part, on one's income share...
...It can do this by taxation of inheritance and income at progressive rates, and also by adjustments in "the legal definition of property rights...
...18.Ibid., p. 73...
...How can fair equality of opportunity be achieved...
...Joel Feinberg, Doing and Deserving: Essays in the Theory of Responsibility (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1970), chap...
...Ibid., pp...
...38.Kenneth Arrow, "Gifts and Exchanges," Philosophy and Public Affairs, (1) Summer 1972, pp...
...The most effective way of holding such groups in check is by denying them the right to organize ' politically, or in other ways, to undermine social equality...
...He can attempt to demonstrate that some feature of a Rawlsian society would necessarily encourage self-interested behavior...
...25 . . . The assertion that a man deserves the superior character that enables him to make the effort to cultivate his abilities is equally problematic...
...32.Ibid., p. 151...
...But if we concede that self-respect does in fact depend on relative position and not just on absolute income, then egalitarian consequences will necessarily follow...
...Each has an equal claim to demand protection of his own interests, whatever those interests turn out to be...
...Those who have appealed to desert to justify differential rewards have proposed various distributive criteria: effort, conscientious effort, success in providing goods and services desired by others, contribution to social welfare (however defined...
...21 [Emphasis added.] Beyond a certain point, inequalities that appear acceptable under the difference principle are likely to generate a loss of selfrespect...
...20.See, e.g., Crocker, "Equality, Solidarity, and Rawls' Maximin," p. 262...
...According to Daniels, liberal political theorists have always "accepted and justified significant inequalities in income, wealth, powers, and authority between both individuals and classes...
...First, it is not clear that Titmuss's argument succeeds, even on its own fairly narrow grounds...
...The crucial fact about blood donation is that it costs almost nothing in terms of time, energy, or inconvenience...
...the other two affect the way in which these principles will be interpreted...
...Of course, Rawls does not say exactly how much inequality is compatible with these three requirements, nor does he explain how we should go about answering this question...
...While it may be true (as radical critics often 326 assert) that Rawls's methodology is in some sense liberal or individualistic, it is also true that he builds his argument on strongly egalitarian assumptions...
...An assumption of limited altruism, chosen by Rawls because it is weak, or widely accepted, 37 leads to the adoption of the difference principle by the original contractees...
...In the earlier versions of the theory, the first principle simply protected "liberty...
...When we take account of self-respect, fair equality of opportunity, and the need to preserve the value of liberty, such a conclusion seems less plausible...
...2. Inequalities in wealth and income cannot be justified in terms of personal desert...
...Rawls assumes from the outset that all such arguments must fail...
...Daniels, pp...
...21.Rawls, A Theory of Justice, p. 546...
...This is particularly important if we have doubts about the validity of Rawls's view concerning desert...
...This is, as I've said, a tempting line of argument...
...They fail because we are never justified in saying that the actions that serve as criteria for desert have been performed "responsibly...
...but he does not cite any evidence for this belief, and I suspect that very little exists...
...Rawls is clearly thinking of professions such as medicine, but is it really inconceivable that people might become doctors simply out of a desire to serve their fellows, or because of the respect accorded doctors in the community...
...xv and xxxii...
...4 I Based on the considerations discussed above, I should like to suggest several additional possibilities: The principles of justice would require some sort of socialism if the self-respect of the worst off could be maintained in no other way, or if the fair value of liberty could be protected in no other way, or if fair equality of opportunity could be achieved in no other way...
...He assumes that substantial inequalities are necessarily incompatible with a high level of social solidarity...
...In the absence of strict institutional controls implied in such a formula it seems unlikely—on all present evidence—that differences in social endowment would not make themselves felt in the form of pressure for differential reward If one accepts this theory and still hopes to achieve greater equality, then one will have to argue in favor of radical curtailment of freedom of thought, discussion, and association...
...And efforts to generate solidarity would probably place some limits on the sorts of material inequalities that can be tolerated...
...In this essay I want to consider these criticisms and the issues they raise...
...Rawls never explains how we determine which liberties deserve to be called "basic...
...If we considered only the distribution of skills and incentives, we might conclude that Rawls's theory justifies considerable if not "drastic" economic inequality...
...few people will just give blood away, no matter how badly it is needed...
...they are easily overlooked...
...Daniels, pp...
...37.Rawls, A Theory of Justice, pp...
...31.Ibid., p. 440...
...But it is important to make clear that Rawls has structured his theory to ensure that it cannot succeed...
...Norman Daniels (New York: Basic Books, 1975), pp...
...Rawls assumes that when we lack self-respect the other primary goods will have very little value...
...This does not mean that we should dismiss such an argument out of hand: I suspect that if a plausible egalitarian critique of Rawls can be developed it will be a critique of this sort...
...31 Because of its privileged position, it is never rational to exchange self-respect for an increase in other goods...
...It is virtually inconceivable that a society as inegalitarian as our own could be just or nearly just by Rawlsian standards, once all of his limits on inequality are taken into account...
...39.Rawls, A Theory of Justice, p. 258...
...Benjamin Barber provides a typical example: This, to me, is like developing a geometry in which the question of whether parallel lines meet is left open, or generating an aesthetic that refuses to take sides on questions of taste...
...THERE IS A MORE FUNDAMENTAL PROBLEM here...
...Income, wealth, and other advantages are equal to within a few percentages...
...More specifically, assuming that there is a distribution of natural assets, those who are at the same level of talent and ability, and have the same willingness to use them, should have the same prospects of success regardless of their initial place in the social system, that is, irrespective of the income class into which they are born...
...5. Self-respect has a special place among the primary goods...
...After asserting that no one is responsible for his natural capacities (and hence that "no one deserves his place in the distribution of native endowments"), he goes on to insist that what can be said about natural capacities can also be said about the way in which people develop or use those capacities: The extent to which natural capacities develop and reach fruition is affected by all kinds of social conditions and class attitudes...
...The difference principle fixes one limit on inequalities of wealth and income, but not the only one...
...28.Ibid., p. 7. 29.Ibid., p. 73...
...According to Crocker, inequalities otherwise compatible with the difference principle ought to be eliminated if they undermine social solidarity...
...Rawls himself suggests at one point that "the choice between a private-property economy and socialism is left open...
...Radical critics have seized upon this sentence as additional evidence of the ideological nature of the theory...
...When material rewards are unavailable, or when they are regarded as morally illegitimate, people will undertake socially useful activities out of altruism or desire to serve the common good...
...They may induce the naturally advantaged, those with scarce talents, to use their endowments "in ways that help the less fortunate as well...
...On the new distribution, five percent of the people would have ten times their previous incomes, and everyone else would have one percent more than his previous income...
...Or, as Stephan Thernstrom puts it, given "certain assumptions about the distribution of skills and incentives" the difference principle "could be used to justify drastic economic inequality...
...151, 311-15...
...This would be true even if (as Thernstrom suspects) Rawls himself sees his principle as "an equalizing device...
...If it could be shown that all inequalities of wealth and income have grave consequences for the self-respect of the least advantaged, then Rawls's theory would require complete economic equality...
...While denying that Rawls was "merely a polemicist for the status quo," Daniels insisted that A Theory of Justice was essentially an ideological work—a defense of liberal political and economic institutions, written "on the heels of a period many thought proved the ideological bankruptcy of liberalism...
...36.Ibid., p. 245...
...Will there really be situations in which tiny increases for the worst off can be achieved only by granting huge increases to the best off...
...2 Robert Nisbet offered a similar interpretation in a long, vitriolic review essay in the Public Interest...
...23.Ibid., p. 505...
...Perhaps Crocker would dismiss this as "false solidarity," an analogue of false consciousness...
...Or it may mean that he thinks we lack sufficient information to make a choice...
...If people are sufficiently altruistic, unequal rewards will never be necessary...
...22 Inequalities become impermissable, then, as soon as they reach the level at which the self-respect of the worst off begins to decline...
...312-13...
...A number of leftist critics have indicated an interest in a critique of this sort, though no one has worked it out...
...This presumably is the reasoning underlying the Marxist-Leninist case for a political order based on the "dictatorship of the proletariat...
...it seems clear that the effort a person is willing to make is influenced by his natural abilities and skills and the alternatives open to him...
...Hence the view put forward by the philosopher Norman Daniels in his introduction to Reading Rawls, a collection of critical essays...
...Let me begin with a brief outline of the theory...
...This necessitates public acknowledgment of the difference principle in real societies, and this in turn encourages nonaltruistic behavior...
...Some writers have supported free-market capitalism because they believed that the market comes as close as possible to rewarding people in accordance with one or more of these criteria...
...253, 254...
...These propositions do not appear in A Theory of Justice, but they do follow logically from Rawls's theory...
...129, 148-49...
...By itself, this assumption is not very controversial...
...The final product is a rich, difficult, and complicated book that has rightly been described as the most important contribution to Anglo-American political philosophy since World War II...
...When the 331 opportunity for gain is introduced, these altruistic impulses are thwarted...
...Judgments of desert apply only to acts over which the agent had some control...
...19.Ibid., p. 278...
...23 One must be capable of having a conception of the good (as expressed in a rational understanding of one's own goals and purposes) and a sense of justice—a normally effective desire to apply and act upon the principles of justice, at least to a minimal degree...
...But it may also be true that greater equality is attainable if we are willing to give up a certain amount of basic liberty...
...Portions of this essay have appeared in a somewhat different form in "Rawls' Theory of Justice: Domestic and International Perspectives," World Politics, April 1977, pp...
...I have argued that Rawls's theory is unlikely to permit the kinds of material inequalities with which we are familiar...
...second, public monies should be provided to encourage free discussion...
...Rather, he simply declares all information about possible reasons for desert to be "morally irrelevant" and excludes it from the knowledge available to the original contractees...
...Rawls offers two modest proposals: first, elections should be publicly financed...
...Rawls assumes some sort of market economy, but he objects to "the competitive determination of total income, since this ignores the claims of need and an appropriate standard of life...
...In the first section I argue that, as usually presented, the radical criticism overlooks crucial features of Rawls's theory...
...Rawls himself may believe that high salaries will be needed to get talented people to put up with the headaches that accompany managerial positions, but he may simply be wrong...
...I There are two ways of responding to this sort of argument...
Vol. 27 • July 1980 • No. 3
