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Rawlsian and Marxist Perspectives on the Content of Social Justice

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Rawlsian and Marxist Perspectives on the Content of Social Justice Property Owning Democracy, Socialism and Justice: Rawlsian and Marxist Perspectives on the Content of Social Justice By Valentin Stoian Department of Political Science, Central European University In Partial Fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor in Philosophy SUPERVISOR: Prof. Janos Kis CEU eTD Collection BUDAPEST, HUNGARY February 2014 CEU eTD Collection 2 The dissertation contains no materials accepted for any other degrees in any other institutions. The dissertation contains no materials previously written and/or published by another person, except where appropriate acknowledgment is made in the form of bibliographical reference. Valentin Stoian CEU eTD Collection i Abstract The dissertation addresses the relation between contemporary socialism and contemporary liberalism. It inquires into whether the Rawlsian politico-economic system denominated property-owning democracy can rebut the Marxist challenge and answers the question in the positive. Liberal egalitarianism, especially in its Rawlsian form, has come to dominate political theory and is broadly shared among its practitioners. Since the collapse of analytical Marxism, no major challenge from the left has been posed to the liberal dominance. This thesis aims for a revival of the main ideas of analytical Marxism and draws inspiration from them to construct a critique of the latest work in the field of Rawlsian political theory. The politico-economic regime called property-owning democracy is scrutinized and eventually defended from the Marxist critique. The first two chapters of the dissertation are dedicated to an analysis of the Marxist opus. The aim of the first chapter is to defend a non-relativistic reading of the relationship between Marx and justice. The main focus of the chapter is Marx‘s The German Ideology, but other quotes bearing on his view of justice are also mobilized. The chapter concludes by arguing for an account according to which morality and justice are, for Marx, both historically dependent and valid at any particular time. The second chapter defends a left-libertarian reading of Marx‘s works, according to which his main tenets are interpreted as a limited form of self-ownership coupled with joint world ownership. A democratic form of socialism is presented as the institutional structure embodying the principles. The third chapter analyzes the politico-economic arrangement known as property-owning democracy. It argues that it is a system built around a fair market, populated by both hierarchical and cooperative firms. Moreover, it also maintains that Rawls‘s choice for a property-owning democracy over the welfare state is based on a proper interpretation of all his principles. Finally, the chapter rejects the claim that the property-owning democracy could be understood as a system of democratic coordination, both at the level of the firm and at the level of the economy. Alternatively, a reformed market system is the preferred Rawlsian solution. The fourth and final chapter brings together these strands and compares Marx‘s democratic socialism with the property-owning democracy. Five socialist objections are constructed and the Rawlsian framework is held against them. The conclusion is that most of these objections can be rebutted and that the liberal framework can offer proper replies to the socialist challenge. The thesis brings three novelties to the literature. It elaborates self-ownership centered theory Marxist theory of justice and defends it from challenges. The thesis refines the ideal of the property-owning democracy and distinguishes it from other capital distribution proposals. Thirdly, it puts these two ideals together for the first full-blown comparison of socialism and the new strands of liberalism. CEU eTD Collection ii Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1: Marx, Justice and Ideology....................................................................................... 9 1.1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 9 1.2. Literature review ................................................................................................................ 11 1.3. Marx against justice ........................................................................................................... 30 1.3.1. The theory of ideology ................................................................................................ 30 1.3.2. Marx against justice-other quotations.......................................................................... 41 1.4. Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 51 Chapter 2: A Marxian Theory of Justice .................................................................................. 53 2.1.Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 53 2.2. Marx: the building blocks .................................................................................................. 56 2.2.1. The two spheres-exchange and production ................................................................. 56 2.2.2. The labor theory of value ............................................................................................. 59 2.2.3. The theory of alienation ............................................................................................... 64 2.2.4 The forms of profit-just and unjust inequalities ........................................................... 67 2.3. A Marxian theory of Justice ............................................................................................... 71 2.3.1. Preliminaries-the cryptic communism ......................................................................... 71 2.3.2. Marxian theories of justice .......................................................................................... 75 2.3.3. A left-libertarian Marxian Theory of Justice ............................................................... 81 2.3.3.1. Marx‘ normative premises 1: limited self-ownership, equal initial access to resources (joint world ownership). .................................................................................... 82 CEU eTD Collection 2.3.3.2. Theories of exploitation and its immorality .......................................................... 92 2.3.3.3 A defense of limited self-ownership ..................................................................... 102 2.3.3.4. Marx‘s normative premises 2: absence of alienation ......................................... 121 iii 2.3.4. Principles and institutional suggestions ..................................................................... 123 2.3.4.1.Equal control over economic processes .............................................................. 124 2.3.4.2 Equal control over political processes ................................................................ 128 2.3.4.3. Minimum necessary inequalities ......................................................................... 130 2.4. Conclusion: differences and defenses .............................................................................. 132 Chapter 3: The Property-Owning Democracy ....................................................................... 135 3.1. Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 135 3.2. Literature review .............................................................................................................. 137 3.3 Several Rawlsian concepts ................................................................................................ 159 3.4. Why Property Owning Democracy and not Welfare State Capitalism ............................ 165 3.5. What is not Property-Owning Democracy: a critique of Hussain, Hsieh and White ....... 171 3.6. What is not Property-Owning Democracy: distinguishing from basic income and basic capital/stakeholding. ................................................................................................................ 179 3.7. The property-owning democracy ..................................................................................... 183 Chapter 4: Democratic socialism and property owning democracy compared .................. 189 4.1. Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 189 4.2. Economic institutions ....................................................................................................... 191 4.3 Political institutions ........................................................................................................... 200 4.4. Can the property owning democracy (and liberal socialism) rebut the Marxian criticisms? ................................................................................................................................................. 205 4.4.1. The negative rights objection .................................................................................... 205 4.4.2. The political rights objection ..................................................................................... 208 CEU eTD Collection 4.4.3 The self-realization (in private activities) objection
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