ECON 4270 Distributive Justice Lecture 7 7.A: Dworkin. 7B: The Capability Approach
ECON 4270 Distributive Justice Lecture 7
7.A: Dworkin.
7B: The Capability Approach
Hilde Bojer
www.folk.uio.no/hbojer
[email protected]
13 October 2009
ECON 4270 Distributive Justice Lecture 7 7.A: Dworkin. 7B: The Capability Approach
Introduction
Ronald Dworkin
The capability approach
ECON 4270 Distributive Justice Lecture 7 7.A: Dworkin. 7B: The Capability Approach
Introduction
Economic equality?
There are several conceptions of economic equality.
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Equality of welfare
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Equality of primary goods
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Equality of income
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Equlity of marginal utilities??
Equality of income: there are several ways of defining income
Reminder:
cash income, full income: if people choose freely between paid
work and leisure
ECON 4270 Distributive Justice Lecture 7 7.A: Dworkin. 7B: The Capability Approach
Introduction
Advocating equality of income is sometimes called
resourcism
(equality of economic resources)
But economic resources can also be understood in different ways
ECON 4270 Distributive Justice Lecture 7 7.A: Dworkin. 7B: The Capability Approach
Ronald Dworkin
Ronald Dworkin
b 1931
Still active, in particular a frequent contributor to the New York
Review of Books
Professor of Law in New York and London
Well known book: Taking Rights Seriously
Published two articles in 1981s: (references in my textbook)
What is Equality: 1. Equality of Welfare
What is Equality: 2. Equality of resources
Equality of welfare in particular introduces the concept of
expensive preferences,
and should have killed welfarism for good
ECON 4270 Distributive Justice Lecture 7 7.A: Dworkin. 7B: The Capability Approach
Ronald Dworkin
Equality of resources
Dworkin imagines people assembled on a desert island
and distributing
natural resources
Water, arable land, palm trees, minerals, fishing rights
etc etc
ECON 4270 Distributive Justice Lecture 7 7.A: Dworkin. 7B: The Capability Approach
Ronald Dworkin
Each person receives a bundle of such resources
The distribution is just if it is
envy-free
No one would prefer someone else’s bundle to his own
(is this possible?)
ECON 4270 Distributive Justice Lecture 7 7.A: Dworkin. 7B: The Capability Approach
Ronald Dworkin
Dworkin: equality of resources
This is what Dworkin means by equality of resources
External resources
There are also internal resources:
Talents
Health
Endowments
Insurance against being born with handicaps
(There, but for the grace God, go I)
ECON 4270 Distributive Justice Lecture 7 7.A: Dworkin. 7B: The Capability Approach
Ronald Dworkin
Some important concepts introduced by Dworkin
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Ambition sensitive
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Endowment insensitive
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Brute luck
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Option luck
ECON 4270 Distributive Justice Lecture 7 7.A: Dworkin. 7B: The Capability Approach
The capability approach
The capability approach
Introduced by Amartya Sen
b. 1933
Indian economist, professor at Harvard University
Nobel prize for economics 1998
ECON 4270 Distributive Justice Lecture 7 7.A: Dworkin. 7B: The Capability Approach
The capability approach
There is a society:
The Human Development and Capabilities Association
HDCA
with a website and a journal
The capability approach also partly adapted by the UNDP
Reports on literacy, infant mortality and expected length of life
ECON 4270 Distributive Justice Lecture 7 7.A: Dworkin. 7B: The Capability Approach
The capability approach
Sens’s criticism of Rawls and resourcism:
People have different needs,
and therefore need different amounts of economic goods to satisfy
them.
Distribution within the family
Of welfarism (and happiness):
adaptive preferences
ECON 4270 Distributive Justice Lecture 7 7.A: Dworkin. 7B: The Capability Approach
The capability approach
Capability approach
The central idea of the capability approach:
genuine freedom to choose your life
cf: Development as Freedom
The aim of both distributional and other policies should be to
secure important capabilities
ECON 4270 Distributive Justice Lecture 7 7.A: Dworkin. 7B: The Capability Approach
The capability approach
Important concepts:
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Functionings
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Capabilities
A capability is the capability to achieve a functioning
Examples:
food:
starving
fasting
mobility
wheel chair and equipment if you are lame
Nussbaum: capability of sexual enjoyment
social participation: relative poverty
ECON 4270 Distributive Justice Lecture 7 7.A: Dworkin. 7B: The Capability Approach
The capability approach
Capability approach
The capability approach is an
approach
a way of thinking
Sen has refused to specify a list of capabilities
the subject of democratic deliberation
ECON 4270 Distributive Justice Lecture 7 7.A: Dworkin. 7B: The Capability Approach
The capability approach
Capability approach
There is a bundle, or a list, of capabilities,
not (necessarily) to be weighted together in an index.
Capabilities are individual
(cf distribution within the family)
ECON 4270 Distributive Justice Lecture 7 7.A: Dworkin. 7B: The Capability Approach
The capability approach
Example of list of capabilitites
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life
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physical security
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health
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education
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standard of living
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productive and valued activities
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individual, family and social life
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participation and voice
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identity, expression and self-respect
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legal security.
ECON 4270 Distributive Justice Lecture 7 7.A: Dworkin. 7B: The Capability Approach
The capability approach
Example from a USA study
more about empirical work posted on our website
ECON 4270 Distributive Justice Lecture 7 7.A: Dworkin. 7B: The Capability Approach
The capability approach
Norwegian level-of -living surveys
(Norwegian: Levekårsundersøkelser)
carried out by Statistics Norway (Statistisk sentralbyrå)
Examples:
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Health
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Social participation
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Political voice