Egalitarian Perspectives: Essays in Philosophical Economics

by John E. Roemer

Overview

This book presents fifteen essays, written over the past dozen years, that explore contemporary philosophical debates on egalitarianism, using the tools of modern economic theory, general equilibrium theory, game theory, and the theory of mechanism design. Egalitarian Perspectives is divided into four parts: the first part presents Roemer's influential reconceptualization of the Marxian theory of exploitation as a theory of distributive justice; the second part offers a critique of Ronald Dworkin's equality-of-resources theory; the third part introduces a novel application of the theory of mechanism design to the study of political philosophy; and the fourth part presents the author's views on market socialism and public ownership, and demonstrates that Professor Roemer is at the forefront of refining new theories and conceptions of market socialism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521450669
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	02/25/1994
Pages:	370
Product dimensions:	6.26(w) x 9.29(h) x 0.98(d)

Table of Contents

Introduction; Part I. Exploitation: 1. Exploitation, alternatives, and socialism; 2. Property relations vs. surplus value in Marxian exploitation; 3. Should Marxists be interested in exploitation?; 4. What is exploitation? Reply to Jeffrey Reiman; 5. Second thoughts on property relations and exploitation; Part II. Equality of Resources: 6. Equality of talent; 7. Egalitarianism, responsibility, and information; 8. A pragmatic theory of responsibility for the egalitarian planner; Part III. Bargaining Theory and Justice: 9. The mismarriage of bargaining theory and distributive justice; 10. A challenge to Neo-Lockeanism; 11. Informational complexity in axiomatic models: benefits and costs; 12. Distributing health: the allocation of resources by an international agency; Part IV. Public Ownership and Socialism: 13. On public ownership; 14. The morality and efficiency of market socialism; 15. A future for socialism.

Editorial Reviews

"The essays John Roemer brings together in this collection are of the very highest caliber. This is work of great originality, intelligence, and scholarly competence that effortlessly straddles the boundaries between economics and philosophy." Daniel Hausman, University of Wisconsin

"What is nice about Egalitarian Perspectives is that it allows us, in the case of the five pieces dealing with exploitation, to follow the evolution of Roemer's thought as it encounters difficulties...I remain...very challenged by Roemer's argument...he convinces me that exploitation is a much more complicated and general phenomenon than has traditionally been recognized." Contemporary Sociology

From the Publisher