Justice and The Politics of Difference

Autonomy exists when an individual or group has the sole and final authority to make decisions without interference from others (249). Young views this as a private concept, or one which excludes others from interfering.

An individual’s basic security system, as Young uses Anthony Giddens’s theory to explain, is grounded in an identity that provides a sense of autonomy. People reject those different from them to protect this sense of security (often at an unconscious level).

A bureaucracy refers to a “system that defines and organizes social projects as the object of social control” (76). Young argues that bureaucratic decision-making contributes to the depoliticization of public life. Bureaucratic decisions are presented as neutral, the predetermined result of any professional’s choice, when in fact they are made by human beings and subject to variability.

A copresence of subjects refers to an ideal in which subjects are transparent to one another and therefore understand one another. Young does not think such transparency is possible and criticizes communitarians for assuming that it is. The assumption, per Young, should instead be that people are strangers to one another.

Critical theory rejects universal values in favor of historically and socially contextualized reflection. It is a form of philosophical analysis that Young adopts to explore the shortcomings of the distributive theory of justice in the late 20th-century US.

Cultural imperialism occurs when “the dominant meanings of a society render the particular perspective of one’s own group invisible at the same time as they stereotype one’s group and mark it out as Other” (58-59). Young identifies this as a form of oppression that the belief in universal reason and universal standards facilitates; in reality, the dominant group, which has constructed the universal standards in its own image, defines other social groups as deviant.

Culture includes “the symbols, images, meanings, habitual comportments, stories, and so on through which people express their experience and communicate with one another” (23). Because the meanings that people attach to social groups impact the self-worth and opportunities of such groups, a theory of justice must address culture. In including this concept, Young gives academic voice to social movements criticizing this form of oppression.

Democratic cultural pluralism, which is the opposite of assimilation, asserts an equality among social groups, all of whom respect one another and affirm one another’s differences. Young argues that freedom from oppression comes from this model, which she also describes as a politics of difference.

Discursive consciousness refers to an individual’s awareness of actions and situations and often involves explicit verbalization. Young argues that racism, sexism, and other forms of bias do not typically function at this level in the late 20th-century US.

The distributive paradigm of justice is the prevailing liberal conception of justice and focuses on how benefits and burdens should be distributed among the populace. Young criticizes this theory’s focus on material goods and its failure to emphasize the importance of decision-making processes, the division of labor, and cultural issues.

Domination exists when people are unable to participate in determining their actions or the conditions of their actions because of institutional conditions (38). Domination, per Young, is unjust and therefore she calls for democratization of not only the governmental sphere, but all aspects of society, such as work.

Empowerment occurs when people participate in “decisionmaking through an effective voice and vote” (251). Contrasting this concept with autonomy, Young emphasizes its public nature, as it facilitates a collective life.

A hierarchical division of labor organizes the workforce into a minority of positions with autonomy, power, and lucrative material rewards and a majority of positions that are poorly paid and not empowered to make decisions. Young deems such a division of labor unjust because the majority do not have an opportunity to use their capabilities and are subject to the commands of others. In short, they are oppressed.

Ideology, per Young, is present when a belief in an idea or ideas helps to “reproduce relations of domination or oppression by justifying them or by obscuring possible more emancipatory social relations” (112). Young argues that belief in the possibility of impartiality operates this way, as it justifies the idea of a neutral state and the distributive paradigm of justice, as well as bureaucratic authority and hierarchical decision-making.

Marginals are “people the system of labor cannot or will not use” (53). Young argues that marginalization is one of the faces of oppression and that it expels people from social life at the cost of severe deprivation or even death.

According to Young, oppression exists in:

systematic institutional processes which prevent some people from learning and using satisfying and expansive skills in socially recognized settings, or institutionalized social processes which inhibit people’s ability to play and communicate with others or to express their feelings and perspective on social life in contexts where others can listen (38). 

Young contributes to the understanding of this concept by identifying five of its forms: exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, cultural imperialism, and violence. This concept is central to her understanding of contemporary injustice, and she argues that the distributive paradigm fails to incorporate 

Pluralism is a theory of interest-group politics that assumes all groups are represented and pursue self-interests in a competitive environment with the government acting as a mediator and striking compromises. Young criticizes this form of politics for equating selfish interests with those of justice and for its focus on material goods.

Politics, according to Young, includes “all aspects of institutional organization, public action, social practices and habits, and cultural meanings insofar as they are potentially subject to collective evaluation and decisionmaking” (9). This broad definition enables Young to argue that economic arrangements and media imagery, for example, are subject to the demands of justice and therefore should be democratically structured.

Powerlessness exists when people must take orders and have virtually no opportunity to develop and exercise skills (56). They must do what they are told. Young deems this a form of oppression and argues that justice demands a reorganization of the workplace to ensure that people have the opportunities to develop and use their capacities.

Practical consciousness refers to those actions that are habitual, reflexive, and on the “fringe” of someone’s awareness (131). Young maintains racism, sexism, and other forms of oppression frequently operate on this level in the contemporary US. Though this oppression is not intentional, its effects are nonetheless harmful, as social groups experience the aversion and fear that others feel towards them.

A region is “the space across which people commonly travel to work, shop, play, visit their friends, and take the children on errands, the span of a day trip” (252). Young deems regions to be promising units for the lowest level of governmental organization, arguing that smaller communities tend to be exclusive and to penalize difference.

A social group consists of persons who share an identity and an affinity for one another based on similar experiences and culture. Such groups are differentiated from at least one other group in the society, as social groups are relational. Social groups are the building blocks of Young’s theory of justice, as she seeks to empower several oppressed social groups. Her criticism of universal standards is partly grounded in the fact that they represent only the perspective of the dominant group but nonetheless claim universality.