Philosophy | Open Access Articles | Digital Commons Network™

Citizenship, In The Immigration Context, Matthew J. Lister Jan 2010

Citizenship, In The Immigration Context, Matthew J. Lister

All Faculty Scholarship

Many international law scholars have begun to argue that the modern world is experiencing a “decline of citizenship,” and that citizenship is no longer an important normative category. On the contrary, this paper argues that citizenship remains an important category and, consequently, one that implicates considerations of justice. I articulate and defend a “civic” notion of citizenship, one based explicitly on political values rather than shared demographic features like nationality, race, or culture. I use this premise to argue that a just citizenship policy requires some form of both the jus soli (citizenship based on location of birth) and the …

Go to article

Future Generations: A Prioritarian View, Matthew D. Adler Sep 2009

Future Generations: A Prioritarian View, Matthew D. Adler

All Faculty Scholarship

Should we remain neutral between our interests and those of future generations? Or are we ethically permitted or even required to depart from neutrality and engage in some measure of intergenerational discounting? This Article addresses the problem of intergenerational discounting by drawing on two different intellectual traditions: the social welfare function (“SWF”) tradition in welfare economics, and scholarship on “prioritarianism” in moral philosophy. Unlike utilitarians, prioritarians are sensitive to the distribution of well-being. They give greater weight to well-being changes affecting worse-off individuals. Prioritarianism can be captured, formally, through an SWF which sums a concave transformation of individual utility, rather …

Go to article

Something For Nothing: Liberal Justice And Welfare Work Requirements, Amy L. Wax Jan 2003

Something For Nothing: Liberal Justice And Welfare Work Requirements, Amy L. Wax

All Faculty Scholarship

Welfare reform legislation enacted in 1996, which created the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, makes entitlement to federal poor relief conditional on fulfilling work requirements. The article addresses the following timely question: whether just liberal societies should require work as a condition of public assistance for the able-bodied, or whether aid should be provided unconditionally through, for example, a basic guaranteed income for all. Drawing on the work of liberal egalitarian theorists, the article investigates whether standard liberal theories of justice can help make sense of arguments commonly voiced in favor of work requirements: that unconditional welfare guarantees, …

Go to article

Liberal Ideals And Political Feasibility: Guest-Worker Programs As Second-Best Policies, Howard F. Chang Jan 2002

Liberal Ideals And Political Feasibility: Guest-Worker Programs As Second-Best Policies, Howard F. Chang

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Go to article

A Reciprocal Welfare Program, Amy L. Wax Jan 2001

A Reciprocal Welfare Program, Amy L. Wax

All Faculty Scholarship

This paper examines how social welfare programs should be structured to comport with the principle of conditional reciprocity. A previous paper, Rethinking Welfare Rights, 63 Law & Contemporary Problems 257 (Winter/Spring 2000), drew upon voter survey data to suggest that a powerful cluster of attitudes governs citizens' views on social redistribution. Most people accept collective responsibility for the poor but adhere to a moralistic distinction between deserving and undeserving recipients of public aid. They view entitlement to group resources as conditional on each person's reasonable effort, consistent with ability, to support himself and his family. It was speculated that the …

Go to article

Introduction To The Symposium On Conflicts Of Rights, Claire Oakes Finkelstein Jan 2001