Comparative view of Sandel's Distributive Justice Theory

Abstract

In Western political thought, distributive justice has always been an important issue. Utilitarianism, liberalism and communitarianism represent three different views of distributive justice, but they try to solve the same problem, the inequality of income and wealth. Utilitarianism aims at welfare maximization, liberalism takes respect for freedom as its starting point, and communitarianism, represented by Sandel and MacIntyre, advocates Aristotle's deserved theory with the aim of promoting virtue and taking unity as the banner against inequality. This paper takes Sandel's Liberalism and the Limits of Justice as the core of the study, captures the central proposition of distributive justice from the standpoint of communitarianism, introduces the Marxist distributive justice principles of Marx and Cohen, and compares and interprets the characteristics of Sandel's communitarian distributive justice theory from a perspective different from utilitarianism and liberalism. Finally, based on the principles of Marxist view of justice, this paper briefly expounds the theoretical value, limitation and practical possibility of Sandel's distributive justice theory and communitarian view.