Liberal Egalitarianism and the Harm Principle

Abstract

We analyse the implications of classical liberal and libertarian approaches for distributive justice in the context of social welfare orderings. We study an axiom capturing a liberal non‐interfering view of society, the Weak Harm Principle, whose roots can be traced back to John Stuart Mill. We show that liberal views of individual autonomy and freedom can provide consistent foundations for welfare judgements. In particular, a liberal non‐interfering approach can help to adjudicate some fundamental distributive issues relative to intergenerational justice. However, a strong relation is established between liberal views of individual autonomy and non‐interference, and egalitarian principles in the Rawlsian tradition.

Sufficientarianism

“…The other two characterizations emphasize in different ways the distinctive sufficientarian focus on the individual (captured by the idea of absolute improvements in the main result). Our second characterization (Theorem 2) shows how sufficientarianism satisfies a principle of respect for autonomy with a liberal flavor recently proposed in the literature (Mariotti and Veneziani (2009, 2011, Lombardi andVeneziani (2016), andAlcantud (2013)). Finally, our third characterization (Theorem 4) uses the classical neutrality axiom of social choice.…”

A Characterization of the Rawlsian Social Ordering Over Infinite Utility Streams

“…Lombardi et al . () characterize the Rawlsian criterion using Positive Weak Pareto, Preference Continuity, Sup Continuity, Finite Anonymity , a weak version of completeness, and a liberal principle called Weak Harm Principle .…”

Opportunities as Chances: Maximising the Probability that Everybody Succeeds

“… In Mariotti and Veneziani (), we explore a more radical formalisation of the principle, applied not to chances but to welfare levels, in which the ‘no harm’ conclusion follows even when the reduction in welfare is not proportional. This leads to the leximin principle (see also Lombardi et al ., , for an extension. ) From a philosophical viewpoint, we interpret this principle as an incarnation of J.S.…”

“… Lombardi et al . () use Minimal Completeness to characterise the infinite leximin and maximin social welfare relations. Also, we note that all binary relations considered in this Section are incomplete.…”