Understanding Welfare:Justice, Equality of Opportunity and Responsibility: course description
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Ulrich Metschl, Ludwig Maximilians Universitaet
The welfare policies in most industrialized countries have seen considerable chang-es during the last two decades. So far, the search for an appropriate and sustainable welfare regime may have prompted different answers in different nations, but the doubts that the answers brought forward will really end the ‘crisis of welfare capital-ism’ (Stuart White) linger on. Because these doubts add momentum to questions concerning the fairness of the state’s various distributive measures it seems in order to scrutinize the normative foundations of social policy.
From a philosophical perspective, John Rawls’ seminal work “A Theory of Justice” (1971) provides a convenient starting point. However, since its publication almost 40 years ago our understanding of the concept of fairness has considerably developed. Rawls’ egalitarian conception of justice was initially tied to an idea of resource equality, and a number of authors (A. Sen, R. Dworkin) were quick to point out that resources are means, not ends, and thus not the appropriate units for judging the fairness of distributions.
Ensuing debates thus concentrated on the concept of equality of opportunity. How-ever, the attempts to spell out the details of equal opportunity brought the issue of (individual) responsibility to the fore. Any concern for equal opportunity, for exam-ple in health care or in the education system, will have to draw a line between the contributions that individual agents make for their personal well-being and the share that results from the resource allocation which is meant to establish equality of op-portunity. In the light of the ongoing reshaping of the welfare state, it is obvious that these debates, located at the interface between philosophy, economics and political theory, are not merely idle musings. To the extent that the institutional arrangements of the welfare state are committed to the norms of justice, a clarification of these norms and thus a discussion of the notions of justice, equal opportunity and respon-sibility are not only a theoretical desire but are equally of the utmost practical importance.
The aim of the suggested course is twofold. First, an adequate understanding of the norms governing public welfare policies requires a retracing of the sketched devel-opment from justice as resource equality (or even welfare equality) to the notion of equality of opportunity. Second, although this development is widely accepted much remains controversial. In particular, the idea that individuals, even given equal opportunities, are in part responsible for what they achieve in their life, stands in need of further elucidation. In its first part, the course will therefore be devoted to the presentation of recent developments in theories of distributive justice. The second part will turn to the discussion of issues that are currently under debate, in particular the question of individual responsibility for well-being as concomitant to the notion of equal opportunity.
No requisites will be required for participation.
From a philosophical perspective, John Rawls’ seminal work “A Theory of Justice” (1971) provides a convenient starting point. However, since its publication almost 40 years ago our understanding of the concept of fairness has considerably developed. Rawls’ egalitarian conception of justice was initially tied to an idea of resource equality, and a number of authors (A. Sen, R. Dworkin) were quick to point out that resources are means, not ends, and thus not the appropriate units for judging the fairness of distributions.
Ensuing debates thus concentrated on the concept of equality of opportunity. How-ever, the attempts to spell out the details of equal opportunity brought the issue of (individual) responsibility to the fore. Any concern for equal opportunity, for exam-ple in health care or in the education system, will have to draw a line between the contributions that individual agents make for their personal well-being and the share that results from the resource allocation which is meant to establish equality of op-portunity. In the light of the ongoing reshaping of the welfare state, it is obvious that these debates, located at the interface between philosophy, economics and political theory, are not merely idle musings. To the extent that the institutional arrangements of the welfare state are committed to the norms of justice, a clarification of these norms and thus a discussion of the notions of justice, equal opportunity and respon-sibility are not only a theoretical desire but are equally of the utmost practical importance.
The aim of the suggested course is twofold. First, an adequate understanding of the norms governing public welfare policies requires a retracing of the sketched devel-opment from justice as resource equality (or even welfare equality) to the notion of equality of opportunity. Second, although this development is widely accepted much remains controversial. In particular, the idea that individuals, even given equal opportunities, are in part responsible for what they achieve in their life, stands in need of further elucidation. In its first part, the course will therefore be devoted to the presentation of recent developments in theories of distributive justice. The second part will turn to the discussion of issues that are currently under debate, in particular the question of individual responsibility for well-being as concomitant to the notion of equal opportunity.
No requisites will be required for participation.
