Distributive Justice in the Small and Large

The just distribution of primary goods like income and wealth remains a matter of political controversy at national and international levels. However, many benefits and burdens are allocated by ordinary people in their daily lives, including in small-scale domestic settings. Alexander Brown argues for a renewed focus on distributive justice in the small alongside concerns about justice in the large. He develops an all-encompassing theory of distributive justice based on ideals of conjunction and complementarity: conjunction of principles of the same kind of justice, but complementarity between principles of different kinds of justice. He identifies several conjunction mechanisms that can be used to implement a range of principles, and shows how different kinds of distributive justice can be invoked in complementary ways to select among these mechanisms, and in so doing build practical solutions to everyday dilemmas of allocation, including household tasks and bequests.