Abstract
Affirmative action is often implemented as a way of making redress to victims of past injustices. But critics of this practice have launched a three-pronged assault against it. Firstly, they point out that beneficiaries of preferential policies tend not to benefit to the same extent as they were harmed by past injustices. Secondly, when its defenders point to the wider benefits of affirmative action (e.g. destruction of stereotypes, creation of role models), critics maintain that such ends could never be sufficiently weighty to permit violating equal treatment. And, thirdly, critics dispute whether the alleged benefits of affirmative action really ensue. I argue this three-pronged assault is flawed at the conceptual level. Firstly, it operates with an impoverished conception of redress. When X wrongs Y, X does not make exhaustive redress to Y by compensating Y for the harm Y suffered due to X’s wrong action. Redress also requires rectification of the wrong: X must put right the wrong done to Y by making adequate amends. While the means of compensation are determined by the extent of the harm for which compensation is due, the adequacy of amends for a wrong is less tightly controlled by the nature of the wrong. So, secondly, it is perfectly right that the choice of amends be informed by the prospect of wider benefits. Whether, thirdly, these benefits are in fact in prospect in the case of affirmative action is an empirical question which philosophy cannot answer.
Highlights
Affirmative action is often implemented as a way of making redress to victims of past injustices
Philosophia (2015) 43:113–134 who possess characteristic C, where characteristic C does not render an applicant more qualified for the position, place or contract they apply for (B) Either just (i) or both (i) and (ii)—but not (ii) alone—is true of the institution implementing such a policy (i) The institution in question has, in the recent past, intentionally discriminated against those who possess characteristic C in a way which constituted a serious injustice, and its current policy of preference is intended as a way of making redress for this serious injustice to those who possess characteristic C
An institution may be articulated into a number of branches or subsidiaries at different levels of the institution’s overall hierarchy, enjoying various degrees of autonomy. When this is the case, a branch or subsidiary at one level may implement a preferential policy in order to make redress for unjust discrimination perpetrated by itself, or by a different branch or subsidiary at the same level as it, or by a different branch or subsidiary at a different level to it, or by the institution as a whole
Summary
Affirmative action is often implemented as a way of making redress to victims of past injustices. This prong of the assault takes different forms, depending what characteristic it is possession of which wins an individual preference in a given case of affirmative action, and depending what type of institution is implementing the preferential policy.
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