Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-m9kch Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-06T11:51:50.028Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Group Rights v. Individual Rights: The Case of Race-Conscious Policies*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2009

John Edwards
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Affirmative action and preferential treatment are group policies. Their desired effects will be on groups of people rather than on individuals. The two main purposes for such race conscious practice are to compensate for past harm and to promote greater equality of opportunity, and arguments in the debate about such practice have often marshalled ideas about group rights to compensation and equality of opportunity. Most rights-talk on the other hand is about individual rights and the idea of group rights sits uneasily with individual liberalism. This article discusses the nature of group rights and whether they can easily co-exist with individual rights in the pursuit of compensation and equality of opportunity.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 23 , Issue 1 , January 1994 , pp. 55 - 70
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Banner, W. A. (1977), ‘Compensatory justice and the meaning of equity’, in Blackstone, W. T. and Heslep, R. D. (eds.) Social Justice and Preferential Treatment, University of Georgia Press, GA.Google Scholar
Bayles, M. D. (1973), ‘Reparations for wronged groups’. Analysis 33: 6, 182–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beauchamp, T. (1977), ‘The justification of reverse discrimination’, in Blackstone, W. T. and Heslep, R. D. (eds.) Social Justice and Preferential Treatment, University of Georgia Press, GA.Google Scholar
Bell, D. (1985), ‘The triumph of Asian Americans’, The New Republic, 15 07 5 and 22: 28.Google Scholar
Belton, R. (1981), ‘Discrimination and affirmative action: an analysis of competing theories of equality and Weber’, North Carolina Law Review, 59 (2): 531–98.Google Scholar
Bittker, B. (1973), The Case for Black Reparations, Random House, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Black, V. (1974), ‘The erosion of legal principles in the creation of legal policies’, Ethics, 84, 93–115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blackstone, W. T. (1977), ‘Reverse discrimination and compensatory justice’, in Blackstone, W. T. and Heslep, R. D. (eds.) Social Justice and Preferential Treatment, University of Georgia Press, GA.Google Scholar
Blits, J. and Gottfredson, L. (1990), ‘Employment testing and job performance’, The Public Interest, 98 (Winter), 18–25.Google Scholar
Brown, C. (1984), Black and White Britain: The Third Policy Studies Institute Survey, Hutchinson, London.Google Scholar
Day, J. P. (1981), ‘Compensatory discrimination’, Philosophy, 56: 1, 55–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dworkin, R. (1977). Taking Rights Seriously, Duckworth, London.Google Scholar
Edwards, J. (1987), Positive Discrimination, Social Justice and Social Policy, Tavistock, London.Google Scholar
Edwards, J. (1990a), Affirmative Action and Preferential Treatment: An Evaluation of Costs and Benefits, College of Urban Affairs and Public Policy, University of Delaware.Google Scholar
Edwards, J. (1990b) ‘What purpose does equality of opportunity serve?’, New Community, 16: 2, 19–35.Google Scholar
Edwards, J. (1991). ‘Affirmative action “culture” redefines U.S. equal opportunity practice’, Equal Opportunities Review, Spring.Google Scholar
Equal Employment Opportunities Commission and Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (1978), Uniform Guidelines on Employment Selection Procedures (401 FEP Manual 2231), Washington DC.Google Scholar
Feinberg, J. (1973), Social Philosophy, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs.Google Scholar
Frankel, C. (1971), ‘Equality of opportunity’, Ethics, 81, 191–211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frankena, W. K. (1962), ‘The concept of social justice’, in Brandt, R. B. (ed.), Social Justice, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs.Google Scholar
Fullinwider, R. (1980), The Reverse Discrimination Controversy, Rowman and Iittlefield, Totowa NJ.Google Scholar
Glazer, N. (1975), Affirmative Discrimination, Ethnic Inequality and Public Policy, Basic Books, New York.Google Scholar
Goldman, A. (1975), ‘Reparations to individuals or groups?’, Analysis, 35: 5, 168–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldman, A. (1976), ‘Affirmative action’, Philosophy and Public Affairs, 5: 2, 178–95.Google Scholar
Goldman, A. (1979), Justice and Reverse Discrimination, Princeton University Press, Princeton.Google Scholar
Goldman, A. (1987), ‘The justification of equal opportunity’, Social Philosophy and Policy, 5: 1, 88–103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gross, B. R. (1978), Discrimination in Reverse, New York University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Gross, B. R. (1987), ‘Real equality of opportunity’, Social Philosophy and Policy, 4: 2, 120–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hacker, A. (1989). ‘Affirmative action: the new look’. The New York Review, 12 10, 63–8Google Scholar
Hoffman, R. (1977), ‘Justice, merit and the good’, in Gross, B. R. (ed.) Reverse Discrimination, Prometheus, Buffalo NY.Google Scholar
Kennedy, R. (1986), ‘Persuasion and distrust: a comment on the affirmative action debate’. Harvard Law Review, 99: 6, 1327–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levin-Epstein, M. D. (1987), Primer of Equal Employment Opportunity, 4th edn, Bureau of National Affairs Inc., Washington DC.Google Scholar
Miller, D. (1976), Social Justice, Clarendon Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Mishkin, P. J. (1983), ‘The uses of ambivalence: reflections on the Supreme Court and the constitutionality of affirmative action’, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 131: 4. 907–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nickel, J. (1972), ‘Discrimination and morally relevant characteristics’, Analysis, 32: 4, 113–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nickel, J. (1973). ‘Should reparations be to individuals or to groups?’, Analysis, 34: 5, 154–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nickel, J. (1977). ‘Preferential policies in hiring and admissions: a jurisprudential approach’, in Gross, B. (ed.) Reverse Discrimination, Prometheus, Buffalo, NY.Google Scholar
Nozick, R. (1974), Anarchy, State and Utopia, Blackwell, Oxford.Google Scholar
Nunn, W. (1973), ‘Reverse discrimination’. Analysis, 34: 5, 151–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O, R. M.'Neil (1975), Discriminating Against Discrimination, Indiana University Press, Bloomington.Google Scholar
Parekh, B. and Mitra, S. K. (1990), ‘The logic of anti-reservation discourse in India’, in Mitra, S. K. (ed.) Politics of Positive Discrimination, Sangam, London.Google Scholar
Potomac Institute Inc. (1984), A Decade of New Opportunity: Affirmative Action in the 1970s, Potomac Institute, Washington DC.Google Scholar
Sher, G. (1981), ‘Ancient wrongs and modern rights’, Philosophy and Public Affairs, 10: 1, 3–17.Google Scholar
Sher, G. (1987), ‘Predicting performance’. Social Philosophy and Policy, 5: 1, 188–203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Silvestri, P. (1973), ‘The justification of inverse discrimination’, Analysis, 34: 1, 31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sowell, T. (1975), ‘Affirmative action reconsidered: was it necessary in academia?’, Evaluative Studies, 27, 5–6.Google Scholar
Sowell, T. (1977), ‘“Affirmative action” reconsidered’, in Gross, B. R. (ed.) Reverse Discrimination, Prometheus, Buffalo, NY.Google Scholar
Sowell, T., (1990), Preferential Policies: An International Perspective, William Morrow, New York.Google Scholar
Taylor, P. (1973). ‘Reverse discrimination and compensatory justice’, Analysis, 33: 6, 177–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thurow, L. (1979), ‘A theory of groups and economic redistribution’. Philosophy and Public Affairs, 9: 1, 25–41.Google Scholar
Walzer, M. (1983), Spheres of Justice: A Defence of Pluralism and Equality, Blackwell, Oxford.Google Scholar