Democratic Distributive Justice

by Ross Zucker

Overview

By exploring the integral relationship between democracy and economic justice, this study explains how democratic countries with market systems should deal with the problem of high levels of income-inequality. The book provides an interdisciplinary approach that combines political, economic, and legal theory. It also analyzes the nature of economic society and the considerations bearing upon the ethics of relative pay, such as the nature of individual contributions and the extent of community. Hb ISBN (2000): 0-521-79033-6

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521790338
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	12/04/2000
Pages:	348
Product dimensions:	6.42(w) x 9.37(h) x 1.06(d)
Lexile:	1560L (what's this?)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements; 1. Democracy and economic justice; Part I. Unequal Property and Individualism in Liberal Theory: 2. The underlying logic of liberal property theory; 3. Unequal property and its premise in Locke's theory; 4. Unequal property and individualism, Kant to Rawls; Part II. Egalitarian Property and Justice as Dueness: 5. Whose property is it, anyway?; 6. The social nature of economic actors and forms of equal dueness; 7. Policy reflections: the effect of an egalitarian regime on economic growth; Part III. Egalitarian Property and the Ethics of Economic Community: 8. Deriving equality from community; 9. The dimension of community in capital-based market systems: between consumers and producers; 10. Endogenous preferences and economic community; 11. The dimension of community in capital-based market systems: between capital and labour; 12. The right to an equal share of part of national income; Part IV. Democracy and Economic Justice; 13. Democratic distributive justice; 14. Democracy and economic rights; Conclusions; References; Index.

Editorial Reviews

...exceptionally fine scholarly analysis...required reading for anyone...who wishes to obtain a comprehensive understanding of capitalism in modern democracy. —(November 2001)

Choice

Democratic Distributive Justice is to be welcomed as a challenging contrbution to contemporary political and economic theory.

Polictical Studies Journal

"Ross Zucker has written a novel and thought-provoking book on the relationship between income distribution, rights, and democratic community. In it, he offers a powerful arguement for a more egalitarian distribution of income. He also offers numerous penetrating observations on popular and influential theories of distribution, indicating clearly how they relate to his own. This is a rewarding and challenging book both for those who find themselves convinced by its central argument and those who remain skeptical." David P. Levine, University of Denver

"Ross Zucker has written a novel and thought-provoking book on the relationship between income distribution, rights, and democratic community. In it, he offers a powerful arguement for a more egalitarian distribution of income. He also offers numerous penetrating observations on popular and influential theories of distribution, indicating clearly how they relate to his own. This is a rewarding and challenging book both for those who find themselves convinced by its central argument and those who remain skeptical." David P. Levine, University of Denver

"Zucker's book is of particular interest for its methodological structure, which allows the author to deal with issues now at the center of the debate...The wide scope of the analysis provided by the method adopted allows the author to deal with many significant perspectives: from Locke to Marx, from Keynes to Rawls and Dworkin, from the communitarians to Dahl...The book has the merit of demonstrating, by contrast to the view of modern economic theory, that capital-based market systems are characterized by a dimension of community on a systemwide scale and that democracy necessarily involves rule in accord with redistributory property rights. Distributive justice is a crucial problem both from a theoretical and a practical point of view in a renewed democracy willing to go beyond the persistent liberal model derived from Locke." Thomas Casadei, Ratio Juris: An International Journal of Jurisprudence and Philosophy of Law

"In this exceptionally fine scholarly analysis of the political economy of democracy, Zucker argues that the dynamics of modern capitalism require a broad theoretical framework that justifies more egalitarian distribution of national income...This book should be required reading for anyone, regardless of ideological perspective, who wishes to obtain a comprehensive understanding of capitalism in modern democracy. Highly recommended..." Robert Hieneman, CHOICE

"Democratic Distributive Justice is to be welcomed as a challenging contribution to contemporary political and economic theory. Critical of both liberals and communitarians, Zucker cunningly argues for an individual economic right on the basis of the implicit communitarian features of modern capitalist economies...[T]he book is clearly argued, not withstanding its multidisciplinarity." Agustin Jose Menendez, Political Studies in 2002

From the Publisher