Rawls’s property-owning democracy: a critical analysis of several interpretations

Abstract

The paper critically addresses several interpretations of the concept of “property-owning democracy”, an institutional regime which allows for private property of production means and is preferable, according to Rawls, to welfare state capitalism. It is discussed, first, whether the capital dispersion ambitioned by property-owning democracy should be taken as tantamount to wealth dispersion. Secondly, it is inquired whether property-owning democracy should be associated only to a given result – e.g., capital or wealth dispersion– or also as a sort of regime under which such result is reached through certain means. Property-owning democracy would therefore be understood as a predistributive regime (in contrast with the redistributive welfare state). The conclusion, in sum, is that, putting aside issues regarding human capital, there are reasons to elect a simple definition of property-owning democracy as a regime that disperses wealth to a considerable degree. The final section answers some critiques of property-owning democracy as an alternative to welfare state capitalism.