Distributive Justice Debates in Political and Social Thought

Camilla Boisen is Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Political Theory at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Her area of research is on colonial political thought in relation to the development of ideas of property rights, trusteeship and humanitarian intervention and their influence on contemporary problems such as post-colonial restitution. Matthew C. Murray is the Senior Project Advisor for the Growthpolicy.org project at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and serves as Special Lecturer of Philosophy at Providence College. Matthew is actively researching and publishing in the areas of critical theories of justice (subaltern, race, culture, gender and disability) and their effects on the ideas of and applications of distributive and social justice.

• Table of Contents: Preface: The Limits of Distributive Justice: A Brief Exploration of Restorative Justice David Boucher Introduction: Distributing Distributive Justice Camilla Boisen and Matthew C. Murray (editors) Part I - Historical Approaches to Distributive Justice Chapter 1: A Right to Welfare: Historical and Philosophical Reflections Samuel Fleischacker Chapter 2 – Luck Egalitarianism and the History of Political Thought Carl Knight Chapter 3 – Radical Distributive Justice: Fichte’s The Closed Commercial State David James Chapter 4 – Social Darwinism and Social Justice: Herbert Spencer and the Poor Matt Zwolinski Part II - Distributive Justice Reconsidered: Forging New Debates Chapter 5: Dignity, Sociability and Capability: Exploring Nussbaum’s Interpretation of Grotius Camilla Boisen and Matthew C. Murray Chapter 6: Care Ethics and Distributive Justice Daniel Engster Chapter 7: Justice and Real Politics: Freedom, Needs and Representation Lawrence Hamilton Chapter 8: Conservative Responses to Piketty’s "Unthinkable" Top Rate Income Tax Christopher Allsobrook Part III - New Horizons Beyond the West: African and Global Issues in Distributive Justice Chapter 9: An African Theory of Social Justice: Relationship as the Ground of Rights, Resources and Recognition Thaddeus Metz Chapter 10 – Social Protection & Justice: Poverty, Redistribution, and Dignity Marianne S. Ulriksen, Sophie Plagerson, and Tessa Hochfeld Chapter 11: Territory, Desert, and Global Distributive Justice Kim Angell Chapter 12: The Global Commons and International Distributive Justice Peri Roberts and Peter Sutch Conclusion: Finding a Fair Share Camilla Boisen and Matthew C. Murray (editors)

"The volume is a refreshing departure from the well-worn paths followed in many discussions of distributive justice since Rawls. While not neglecting standard arguments, the contributors provide a much broader, and welcome, perspective on fair shares, including views of justice from Southern Africa, discussions of less familiar figures in this context, for example, Herbert Spencer and Johann Fichte, and less familiar topics, such as the importance of territory in global distributive justice."—Carole Pateman, University of California, Los Angeles "This book is a thoroughly welcome addition to a burgeoning literature on distributive justice. Boisen and Murray have assembled an impressive group of contributors, with wide but mutually supportive interests. Together they highlight the crucial role that discussions of classic issues in history of political thought have had in framing debate in our contemporary (global) context. European, Anglo-American and African perspectives are brought to bear on issues that must concern us in a deeply unequal world. The book is sure to spark interest and debate among students, activists and academics with interests in distributive justice."—Bruce Haddock, Cardiff University, UK