SERENA OLSARETTI

Merito e giustizia

N. 199

Summary - The concept of desert is enjoying a revival in contemporary political philosophy. After a period in which this principle has been largely neglected and John Rawls' critique of it widely endorsed, the possibility that desert should be adopted within a theory of distributive justice is now defended by several writers on the subject. This article maps the ground for the adoption of desert as a principle of justice. After identifying a few main features that characterise the concept of desert in the abstract, the article identifies three main areas of contention in characterising the principle. These concern the question of what constitutes the appropriate bases on which individuals become deserving; the issue of the relation between desert and responsibility; and, finally, the question of whether desert is a pre-institutional principle. By examining these thorny issues in the desert debate and the possible stances that may be taken on them, the article aims to make room for the possibility that a defensible principle of desert may be articulated and adopted within a theory of justice.