What does distributive justice concern?

• A. Justice as equal treatment of all individuals regardless of outcome.
• B. Justice regarding the fair distribution of society's advantages and disadvantages.
• C. Justice defined by the success of the market.
• D. Justice determined by the majority rule.

Answer: (B)

Distributive justice concerns how society’s advantages and disadvantages are distributed among people. It asks who should receive resources like wealth, opportunities, healthcare, and education, and why those allocations are fair. The focus is on fairness in the pattern of distribution created by social institutions, not merely on treating everyone the same or on market outcomes alone. Different theories may justify different distributions—for example, some emphasize need, others contribution, others equality of opportunity—so fairness can mean varying outcomes depending on the guiding principles.

This is why it isn’t about equal treatment regardless of outcome, which would ignore differing starting points; it isn’t about the market’s success, which centers on efficiency and voluntary exchange rather than fairness of spread; and it isn’t about majority rule, which concerns political decision-making rather than how resources are shared.