This level of welfare, while not equal, must be maintained via the Lockean proviso. Every person in the state of nature can achieve a certain level of welfare according to their own abilities. However, Nozick's ideas can endorse the creation of a minimal social program for the poor. Taxation of the rich to support full robust social programs for the poor is unjust because the state is acquiring money by force instead of through a voluntary transaction. The only just transaction is a voluntary one. Nozick's ideas create a strong system of private property and a free-market economy. be entitled to) different amounts of property. Under entitlement theory, people are represented as ends in themselves and equals, as Kant claimed, though different people may own (i.e. Thus the third principle of rectification is needed.Įntitlement theory is based on John Locke's ideas. However, not everyone follows these rules: 'some people steal from others, or defraud them, or enslave them, seizing their product and preventing them from living as they choose, or forcibly exclude others from competing in exchanges' (Nozick 1974:152). Thus, entitlement theory would imply 'a distribution is just if everyone is entitled to the holdings they possess under the distribution' (Nozick 1974:151). No one is entitled to a holding except by (repeated) applications of 1 and 2.A person who acquires a holding in accordance with the principle of justice in transfer, from someone else entitled to the holding, is entitled to the holding.A person who acquires a holding in accordance with the principle of justice in acquisition is entitled to that holding.Nozick believes that if the world were wholly just, only the first two principles would be needed, as 'the following inductive definition would exhaustively cover the subject of justice in holdings': A principle of rectification of injustice – how to deal with holdings that are unjustly acquired or transferred, whether and how much victims can be compensated, how to deal with long past transgressions or injustices done by a government, and so on.A principle of justice in transfer – This principle explains how one person can acquire holdings from another, including voluntary exchange and gifts.It is an account of how people first come to own unowned and natural world property, what types of things can be held, and so forth. A principle of justice in acquisition – This principle deals with the initial acquisition of holdings.

Nozick's entitlement theory comprises three main principles: The theory is Nozick's attempt to describe 'justice in holdings' (Nozick 1974:150)-or what can be said about and done with the property people own when viewed from a principle of justice. Robert Nozick's theory of distributive justiceĮntitlement theory is a theory of distributive justice and private property created by Robert Nozick in chapters 7 and 8 of his book Anarchy, State, and Utopia.

Nozick anarchy