Local Justice: How Institutions Allocate Scarce Goods and Necessary Burdens

by Jon Elster

The well-being of individuals routinely depends on their success in obtaining goods and avoiding burdens distributed by society. Local Justice offers the first systematic analysis of the principles and procedures used in dispensing "local justice" in situations as varied as the admission of students to college, the choice of patients for organ transplants, the selection of workers for layoffs, and the induction of men into the army. A prominent theorist in the field of rational choice and decision making, Jon Elster develops a rich selection of empirical examples and case studies to demonstrate the diversity of procedures used by institutions that mete out local justice. From this revealing material Elster fashions a conceptual framework for understanding why institutions make these crucial allocations in the ways they do. Elster's investigation discloses the many complex and varied approaches of such decision-making bodies as selective service and adoption agencies, employers and universities, prison and immigration authorities. What are the conflicting demands placed on these institutions by the needs of applicants, the recommendations of external agencies, and their own organizational imperatives? Often, as Elster shows, methods of allocation may actually aggravate social problems. For instance, the likelihood that handicapped or minority infants will be adopted is further decreased when agencies apply the same stringent screening criteria―exclusion of people over forty, single parents, working wives, and low-income families―that they use for more sought-after babies. Elster proposes a classification of the main principles and procedures used to match goods with individuals, charts the interactions among these mechanisms of local justice, and evaluates them in terms of fairness and efficiency. From his empirical groundwork, Elster builds an innovative analysis of the historical processes by which, at given times and under given circumstances, preferences become principles and principles become procedures. Local Justice concludes with a comparison of local justice systems with major contemporary theories of social justice―utilitarianism, John Rawls's A Theory of Justice, Robert Nozick's Anarchy, State, and Utopia―and discusses the "common-sense conception of justice" held by professional decision makers such as lawyers, economists, and politicians. The difference between what we say about justice and how we actually dispense it is the illuminating principle behind Elster's book. A perceptive and cosmopolitan study, Local Justice is a seminal work for all those concerned with the formation of ethical policy and social welfare―philosophers, economists, political scientists, health care professionals, policy makers, and educators.

Genres: Philosophy

293 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Jon Elster ، born 22 February 1940, Oslo) is a Norwegian social and political theorist who has authored works in the philosophy of social science and rational choice theory. He is also a notable proponent of analytical Marxism, and a critic of neoclassical economics and public choice theory, largely on behavioral and psychological grounds.

In 2016, he was awarded the 22nd Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science for his contributions to political science.

Reviews

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

Justice in the Elster sense is pretty much how he has guided his whole life: suck up to those in power who will, in turn, give you power so you can oppress the others below you. And how about making a living? Well, you climb a social ladder that gives you a bigger cut from the general robbery. Hence justice means nobody will have to steal for a living, there is going to be the Elster committee that will open your pantry and beat you up within an inch from death, you bourgeois scum! Justice will also mean that if someone from Germany is going to be rude to our beloved king, than your children are bound to die to wash the shame away in war, while the Elster clan is busy with another essay on brotherly love.