Distributive Justice

Distributive justice concerns the nature of a socially just allocation of goods in a society. A society in which incidental inequalities in outcome do not arise would be considered a society guided by the principles of distributive justice. The concept includes the available quantities of goods, the process by which goods are to be distributed, and the resulting allocation of the goods to the members of the society.

Often contrasted with just process, which is concerned with the administration of law, distributive justice concentrates on outcomes. A prominent contemporary theorist of distributive justice is the philosopher John Rawls. This subject has been given considerable attention in philosophy and social sciences.