Restricting Justice: Political Interventions in the Home and in the Market

Abstract

Liberal theorists of justice like John Rawls have long maintained that a theory of justice should apply primarily to the institutional mechanisms of society, and only derivatively to the behavior of individuals within institutions. Institutions of taxation, for example, may be just or unjust by the lights of a theory of justice, but such a theory should deem the behavior of individuals unjust only insofar as that behavior undermines just institutions. As Rawls puts it, "we are to comply with and to do our share in just institutions when they exist and apply to us, [and] we are to assist in the establishment of just arrangements when they do not exist." 1 Critics of this restricted conception of justice (hereafter RCJ) argue that a theory of justice should judge individual behavior directly, even when that behavior complies with just institutions. These critics have tended to focus on two kinds of behavior that they argue should fall within the subject matter of a theory of justice: the "market-maximizing" behavior of economic agents who demand incentives to exercise I would like to thank Harry Brighouse and Jeff Behrends for many helpful conversations that have influenced my thinking on this topic. This article is much better because of their probing questions and generous suggestions. Thanks also to Claudia Card,