Distributive Justice and Political Ideologies. A Rejoinder to Stoian Cover Image

Distributive Justice and Political Ideologies. A Rejoinder to Stoian
Distributive Justice and Political Ideologies. A Rejoinder to Stoian

Author(s): Alexandru Volacu
Subject(s): Political Philosophy, Marxism, Political economy
Published by: Editura Universităţii din Bucureşti
Keywords: anarchism; distributive justice; Marxism; political ideology;

Summary/Abstract: In his reply to my article on distributive justice and political ideologies, published in a previous issue of Studia Politica, Valentin Stoian has raised a number of important points and has paved the way for a more indepth discussion on the concept of distributive justice. Stoian offers three central objections to my arguments. First, he claims that the view of distributive justice which I purport to describe is flawed both because it refers to specific distributive justice theories, not to distributive justice as a field of philosophical investigation, and because it implausibly narrows down the scope of the field due to its incorporation of the notion of a pattern (interpreted in a Nozickian sense) instead of a distributive principle. Second, he claims that one of the ideologies that I present in my article as being incompatible with distributive justice, i.e. anarchism, cannot be intelligibly discussed within the framework of distributive justice since it belongs to a different field, namely that of political obligations. Third, he claims that I offer an unfair construal of the European Left Platform (henceforth, ELP) manifesto by focusing on a holistic interpretation of Marxism and that under a more adequate account, the ELP is not incompatible with the idea of distributive justice. In this rejoinder I will largely concede the latter point but offer a refutation of the first two objections.

  • Issue Year: 16/2016
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 277-286
  • Page Count: 10
  • Language: English