Collective desert in distributive justice
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Date
2023
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Thesis (Ph.D.) - Bogazici University. Institute for Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences, 2023.
Abstract
The literature of desert in distributive justice almost strictly focuses on personal desert claims. This is inadequate. Distributive justice involves distribution at a massive scale, which can only take place through collective acts. At the same time, there is nothing that inherently limits a group of people deserving together. This thesis argues that collective agents can be desert subjects by relying on the everbuilding consensus within social ontology regarding the agency of collectives and in parallel to the recent use of collective agents in the field of state culpabilities. It reconsiders prominent desert claims by introducing a collective desert subject or a collective perspective. The thesis specifically explores the collective alternatives to desert of compensation and merit-based hiring, and adapts Feldman’s community essential needs based desert approach to a collective perspective. Not only is it possible to formulate collective desert claims that function in a similar way to the individual ones, but this helps to better explain existing claims and handle some of their shortcomings. The results of these discussions suggest new areas of desert that can be pursued and new approaches to strengthen the case of desert against its naysayers.