Fairness in American politics and culture.

Abstract

Fairness is a term often used in political debate but not often carefully examined. In this dissertation I propose a way of understanding fairness by combining the insights of political theory with an examination of the way the term is used in political practice. In explaining his theory of justice as fairness, Rawls fashioned an understanding of fairness that combines procedural fairness, reciprocity and equality. But social psychologists have found that fairness is also comparative, meaning that communities and individuals must evaluate the fairness they receive compared to treatment they observe others receiving. This presents special problems for public administrators as they attempt to implement policy fairly and makes the insights of communitarians and administrative ethics relevant. I use the policy of organ allocation as a case study to illustrate how fairness is understood in concrete political action and conclude with a model that may be useful for public administrators in evaluating the fairness of their decisions.