BOOKS
629
eQUALIZING SCARCITY
SOCIAL JUSTICE IN THE LIBERAL STATE. By Bruce A. Ackerman.
Yale University Press. $25.00.
Bruce Ackerman argues that "there is no moral meaning
hidden in the bowels of the universe, " just individuals struggling in
a world they did not create. He perceives a world of inevitable scar–
city with everyone m aking demands, so the struggle for power
becomes central. And this struggle is central not only to liberalism
bu t to all other" isms. "
The rules of liberalism, for Ackerman, stem from the lack of
any moral (or other) meaning in the universe that anyone can claim
to know, a condition that leaves us to create or acquire our own
meaning. And because every meaning is as good as any other, there
are no criteria for choosing among them.
But if one meaning is presumably as good as any other, then all
power should be distributed equally among all citizens, unless a per–
suasive reason can be given for distributing it otherwise. The basic
right, then , in a liberal state, would be to ask anyone with more than
an equal share of power to relinquish it, or to justify his or her super–
iority " rationally and neutrally." To answer that "I am better than
you (or my tastes, morality, values, insights, occupation-what–
ever-are be tter than yours)" is unacceptable . The only acceptable
answer is , " I have more power (authority, etc.) because the people
freely gave it to me."
So far, this agrees with the position of Nozick , Rand , and
Friedman. But Acke rman 's theory is not another defe nse of
laissez-faire. H e would impose two constraints on free exchanges:
everyone must start out at the same level of power, and our power
must end abruptly with our deaths. We all are to start from scratch.
In order for us to engage freely in exchanges, says Ackerman,
the liberal state must guarantee us equal liberal education (equal in
its
outcomes),
equal access to information and to intellectual and
physical opportunities (affirmative compensation for any of our
handicaps) , and, of course, equal enforcement of the basic right to
ask why some have more than others. This is not a laissez-faire state.
Nor is it an authoritarian state. The liberal state enforces equal dis–
tribution of power among citizens (except as indicated) because each
