Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to offer a critique of Sen’s utilisation of aspects of Marx’s
thought that inform his idea of justice. Marx’s ideas appear in four main areas of discussion: Sen’s
positioning of Marx in relation to the other thinkers in his approach to justice; Marx’s fluid notion of
identity and its relation to social choice; the problem of going beyond a subjective perspective to
consider objective concerns by considering the impact of what Sen calls “objective illusion”; and the
issue of just redistribution.
Design/methodology/approach – The author utilises a Marxian framework of analysis that
engages in immanent critique of Sen’s use of Marx in relation to his theory of justice. This is
accomplished through textual analysis and by critical assessment of the analytical Marxist tradition
that Sen can be seen as using in his own theories with all their inherent weaknesses.
Findings – Sen’s attempt to use Marx’s ideas to inform his theory of justice founder because: he
groups Marx with thinkers that would not accept his desire for the abolition of capitalism and a more
just society beyond it. He reduces Marx to the analytical tradition with all its inherent weaknesses.
He resorts to a methodological individualist approach of choice that Marx rejects. His search for
positional objectivity is undermined by the power of capitalist ideology and ruling class interest.
His discussion of just redistribution ignores how Marx’s approach can overcome the arbitrariness that
Sen thinks is inevitable when making just decisions.
Research limitations/implications – Theoretically, the paper suggests that, based on immanent
critique and textual analysis, Sen’s use of Marx’s idea of justice is problematic most notably because
Sen keeps his analysis within the framework of capitalism that Marx would reject. The implication for
further research is the development of Marx’s own arguments on what constitutes a just society.
Practical implications – Practically, the paper raises questions about the capacity for justice to be
achieved within the capitalist system for the reasons discussed in relation to Sen.
Social implications – Socially, the paper implies that far greater measures to tackle the injustices of
the world are necessary than seem to be admitted to by justice theorists such as Sen.
Originality/value – The author shows that the use of Marx’s theories to inform Sen’s notion of
justice, while to be welcomed, lose their efficacious power to expose the full injustice of capitalism and
the need for its transcendence.
History
Department
Politics and International Studies
Published in
International Journal of Social Economics
Volume
43
Issue
12
Citation
FRASER, I., 2016. Sen, Marx and justice: a critique. International Journal of Social Economics, 43 (12), pp.1194-1206.
Publisher
Emerald Group Publishing
Version
AM (Accepted Manuscript)
Publisher statement
This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Acceptance date
2016-09-12
Publication date
2016-12-05
Notes
This paper was accepted for publication in the journal International Journal of Social Economics and the definitive published version is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/IJSE-08-2015-0202