Contemporary Chinese Distributive Justice

Distributive justice is not only an important practical problem in current economic and social development, but also a hot academic topic. This paper holds up Marxism guidance, takes use of contemporary western theories of distributive justice for reference, and discusses the problem of distributive justice in contemporary China mainly from the perspective of economic philosophy. This paper is constitutive of the introduction and four chapters.The introduction introduces the significance of this topic, the status of such research at home and abroad, the basic ideas and methods of research, and the potential innovation and inadequacies of this paper.The first chapter mainly discusses the conceptions of distribution, justice, distribution justice, and so on. It deeply discusses Marx and Engels' thoughts of distributive justice which focus on the animadversion of capitalist private ownership and distribution according to capital and the proposition of distribution according to one's work and further to one's need. It also summarizes the representative distributive justice theories in contemporary western theoretical circles which mainly include: distributive justice theories in Utilitarianism, Rawls'doctrines, Extreme liberalism, Communitarianism, and Amartya Sen's distributive justice theory.The second chapter discusses the income gap in contemporary China based on latest data, the relationship between the widening of income gap and distributive justice, and the reasons why the gap is being widened. Based on this, it holds that it's significant for us to study and achieve distributive justice because distributive justice is contributive to the construction of harmonious socialist society, the implementation of the scientific development concept, and the acceleration of self-development of Marxist studies, and so on.The third chapter mainly discusses the principles of distributive justice in contemporary China. At first, it discusses some main factors which influence the principles of distributive justice in contemporary China such as socio-economic conditions in contemporary China, China human development status, social historical and cultural traditions and traditional socialist equality concept, etc. Then it proposes to exercise the principles of distributive justice in contemporary China which consist of the principle of distribution according to contribution, the principle of reasonable divergence, and the principle of compensatory justice. It defines the meaning of the principle of distribution according to contribution and demonstrates its justice. In this chapter, the principle of reasonable divergence is inferred from Rawls''principle of divergence'which is essentially consistent with'distribution according to one's need'by Marxism founders. It suggests that it is the base line for the realization of the principle of reasonable divergence to satisfy the basic economic and social need of the masses; it is the aim for the realization of the principle of reasonable divergence to make the majority to become the middle-income people. As for the principle of compensatory justice, it intends to compensate the interest imbalance arising from the economic and social transformation and policy bias. It should be stressed that the above three principles are relatively independent, but interactive and complementary.The forth chapter discusses the basic path for the realization of distributive justice in contemporary China. Firstly, it discusses the adjustments of the distribution system and their justice since the market reform. It holds that egalitarian distribution generally considered to be fair and just by Chinese people before the reform and opening-up has the appearance of fairness and justice because of not in accordance with the idea of justice "to be deserved". Since the market reform, the adjustments of the distribution system are basically directed to meet the requirements of the justice. However, the market reform has also caused an expansion of income gap and thus injustice became more and more evident. Secondly, it proposes some constructive suggestions on how to achieve distribution justice in the initial distribution which mainly include strengthening the construction of market order, establishing and perfecting the system of collective bargaining, and improving the minimum wage standard, etc. Thirdly, it discusses how to realize the distribution justice in redistribution. It holds that the government should adopt reasonable financial and tax policies to'cut the rich and help the poor'in redistribution. Especially, the government should continue to promote the equalization of public services, and take the public need's satisfaction as the prior target. Besides, this paper also discusses some other measures to realize distributive justice in contemporary China.