Property and Redistribution

This topic examines what justifies private property, how strong property rights are, and whether and how a just society may redistribute holdings through taxation and welfare.

Definition

Property is a bundle of rights to use, exclude others from, and transfer resources; redistribution is the use of state power, typically through taxation and transfers, to alter the distribution of holdings that markets and prior entitlements produce.

Scope

Covers theories of the justification of private property (labour, utility, freedom), the moral status and limits of property rights, the legitimacy of redistributive taxation, and the libertarian challenge that redistribution violates rights. It draws on, but is distinct from, libertarian entitlement theory.

Core questions

• What, if anything, justifies private ownership of resources?
• How extensive and how strong are property rights?
• May the state redistribute property, and on what grounds?
• Is redistributive taxation a justified policy or a violation of rights?

Key concepts

• private property
• self-ownership
• the labour theory of acquisition
• the bundle of rights
• redistributive taxation
• the Lockean proviso

Key theories

The labour theory of acquisition

Locke argues that persons acquire property in unowned things by mixing their labour with them, provided 'enough and as good' is left for others, grounding private property in self-ownership and work.

The libertarian objection to redistribution

Nozick argues that redistributive taxation of earnings is on a par with forced labour, since taking the products of a person's work without consent violates their rights over themselves and their justly acquired holdings.

The right to private property

Waldron distinguishes special-rights from general-rights arguments for property and argues that, properly understood, a general-rights case for private property may actually support, rather than rule out, claims of the propertyless.

History

Justifications of property run from Aristotle through Locke's labour theory (1689) and Hegel's account of property as the embodiment of free will. The 20th-century debate set Nozick's rights-based critique of redistribution (1974) against Rawlsian and welfare-state defences, with Waldron (1988) systematizing the arguments for and against private property.

Debates

Are property rights absolute?

Whether justly acquired holdings carry near-absolute protection against redistribution, as Nozick argues, or whether property rights are conventional and limited by the demands of justice.

Is taxation theft?

Whether redistributive taxation wrongfully expropriates the fruits of labour, as libertarians contend, or is a legitimate instrument for securing a just distribution and funding public goods.

Key figures

• John Locke
• Robert Nozick
• Jeremy Waldron
• G. W. F. Hegel

Seminal works

• locke1689
• nozick1974
• waldron1988

Frequently asked questions

What is the labour theory of property?

It is Locke's view that a person comes to own previously unowned resources by mixing their labour with them, since each person owns their own labour, subject to the proviso that enough and as good is left for others.